rS-,\', L *' "fe -tM^/tJ^SjlQ^Sj^ \ 




Book . U..J c.. 1 



PKESENTEl) BY 



"SON OF MAN" 



OR 



THE SEQUEL TO EYOLUTIOI^. 



Celestia Root Lang. 




BOSTON": 
ARENA PUBLISHING CO. 

Copley Square. 
1892. 






Copyright, 1892, 

BY 

Celestia Root Lang. 
All Rights Reserved. 



ARENA PRESS. 

JUN1877 



PREFACE 



A PREFACE seems like an apology in one form 
or another ; but I have no apology to make. I 
have done the best I could to clothe my idea of 
the divine principle, or Christ in nature, in scien- 
tific language. It may be that, to those pro- 
foundly versed in science, my handling of these 
subjects may seem crude. I advise such to con- 
fine themselves to the idea. I think they will find 
that a harmonious whole. 

My idea of psychic evolution is based upon 
Professor Joseph LeConte's explanation of evolu- 
tion.i His explanation has been the terrace, so to 
speak, on which I have stood to draw this outer 
circle. Our experience is proof that every action 
admits of being outdone ; that around every circle 
another can be drawn. That my work, in turn, 
will form the terrace on which some one will stand 
to draw another circle is the hope of the 

Author. 

Apkil, 1892. 

1 " Evolution and its Relation to Religions Thought." 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 



PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 
CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Planes of Divine Energy 1 

11. The Union of the Supreme with Nature . 24 

III. The Relation of the Christ in Man to 

Nature 35 

ly. Data of Individual Immortality .... 57 

y. Psychic Kingdom, Kingdom of God .... 72 

yi. The Christ Theory 81 

yil. The Christ Dispensation 92 

PART II. 

psychic evolution and material evolution. 

I. A Sketch of the Genesis of the Theory of 

Evolution 101 

II. Evolution of Force or Psychic Evolution 

AND Material Evolution 121 

III. General Evidence of Evolution as a Uni- 
versal Law 168 

ly. Objections to the Christ Theory Answered 189 
y. Psychic Evolution and the Problem of Evil 206 

V 



VI CONTENTS. 



PART III. 

man's place in nature. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Man's Place in Nature as affected by 

THE COPERNICAN THEORY 215 

II. Man's Place in Nature as affected by 

Darwinism 220 

III. Man's Place in Nature as affected by 

THE Christ Theory 225 

lY. Adam's Place in Nature 235 

Y. Son of Man's Place in Nature 249 

YI. The Philosophy of Pesurrection .... 264 



PAET I. 

PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 



" In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, 
and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people ; and 
for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and 
for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate." 



PSYCHIC EVOLUTION 



CHAPTER I. 

PLANES OF DIVINE ENERGY. 

The children of evolution are asking for spir- 
itual bread. Has evolution nothing to give them 
but a stone ? Or, if they ask a fish, will evolution 
give them a serpent ? When we realize that " God 
is without body, parts, or passions," — pure, in- 
visible, intangible spirit, — the soul asks for more 
knowledge. Science has forever exploded the low 
view of God, which regarded, and regards, him as 
a sort of man, and has taught us that a close and 
vital miion exists between him and nature. What 
we want now is a scientific theory of this union. 
What is needed above all things is a scientific 
theory which will form the nexus between the old 
and the new views. 

Evolution affords the very strongest evidence of 
the existence of an infinite intelligence and will 
hack of and in nature. 

1 



2 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

It is not, however, my purpose to undertake to 
prove the existence of that part, so to speak, of 
Deity hack of nature, since all that is necessary 
to say on that point will be said incidentally in 
the following pages. But my aim is rather to 
give a scientific theory of that part, so to speak, 
of Deity in nature. 

Bruno, the precursor of the modern Pantheistic 
philosophers, held that the infinite soul of God did 
not merely inhabit or pervade the universe, but 
that the universe was simply a manifestation of 
him, therefore itself divine. God was, therefore, 
in the most literal and physical sense, all in all. 
Although we cannot think of Deity as one " whose 
body nature is," a slight infusion of pantheism is 
wholesome and necessary to correct an excessive 
doctrine of individualism, and to perfect the con- 
ception of God, and our idea of God's imma- 
nence in nature, and his psychical or spiritual 
nature ; and that the Infinite Power of which the 
universe is the multiform manifestation is psychi- 
cal. Then psychic evolution ought to furnish the 
solution of the problem, so far as it can be solved. 
We may have a true though not a complete knowl- 
edge of the nature of this union, fg., God in 
Nature, that is, a knowledge co-extensive in every 
feature with its subject. We can, however, have 
a true knowledge ; that is, a knowledge true in 
principle, true in its tendency, and true in the goal 
at which it aims ; true because it goes out from 



PLANES OF DIVINE ENERGY. 3 

and leads to God. The Christ-principle theory- 
aims at least to open the question of a scientific 
theory on the side of religion, of that part, so to 
speak, of Deity in nature. 

Herbert Spencer says, " One truth must grow 
ever clearer, — the truth that there is an inscruta- 
ble existence everywhere manifested, to which 
man can neither find nor conceive either beginning 
or end. Amid the mysteries which become the 
more mysterious the more they are thought about, 
there will remain the one absolute certainty that 
he is ever in the presence of an Infinite and Eter- 
nal Energy, from which all things proceed." And 
he adds elsewhere, that it is this same power 
which "in ourselves wells up under the form of 
consciousness." Is this all that we may expect to 
know ? I think not. While it may be enough 
to satisfy an agnostic, it is not enough to satisfy 
a Christian. 

I would ask is the power which wells up in us as 
self-consciousness, the same power that wells up in 
the animal as consciousness, and in the plant as 
vegetal life ? If it is the same eternal energy, 
then, there must be degrees or planes of divine 
energy. 

The great doctrine of the "correlation of 
forces," so triumphantly established by modern 
science, confirms this view. It means simply that 
what we call ''^forces of nature,^^ i.e., divine energy, 
are different forms of one and the same thing, 



4 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

hence different degrees or planes of divine energy. 
Thus the "force" which causes a stone to fall to 
the earth (" gravity ") , the " force " by which two 
gases unite to produce the dew-drop (" chemical 
affinity") the "force " which causes the grass to 
grow (" life "), and man to think (" mind "), are 
all streams issuing from one fountain-head, and 
that fountain-head is believed to be spiritual or 
psychical in its nature. Instead of saying that 
gravity, chemical affinity, life, etc., are different 
streams issuing from one fountain-head, would it 
not be better to say that the forces of nature, i.e.^ 
divine energy, are one stream issuing from one foun- 
tain-head and rising higher and higher on to these 
different planes, the first being the plane of ele- 
ments, each plane having its own appropriate 
force and distinctive phenomena. On the first 
operate physical forces, producing physical phe- 
nomena only — for the operation of chemical 
affinity immediately raises force to the next plane. 
Second^ the plane of chemical compounds. On this 
plane operate, in addition to physical, also chemi- 
cal forces, producing all those changes by action 
and reaction, the study of which constitutes the 
science of chemistry. Third., the plane of vegetal 
life. On this plane, in addition to tlie two preced- 
ing forces, with their characteristic phenomena, 
operates also life-force, producing the distinctive 
phenomena characteristic of living things. Fourth^ 
the plane of animal life. On this plane, in addition 



PLANES OF DIVINE ENERGY. 5 

to all lower forces and their phenomena, operates 
also a higher form of life-force characteristic of 
animals, producing the phenomena characteristic 
of sentient life, such as sensation, consciousness, 
and will. Fifth, the plane of rational life. On this 
plane, in addition to all the preceding forces and 
phenomena, we have also the forces and phenom- 
ena characteristic of self-conscious, rational, and 
moral life. But why does science stop here ? Is 
there not a higher plane of force ? Certainly 
there is. Sixth, the plane of psychic life, or Christ 
plane. On this plane, in addition to all preceding 
forces and phenomena, we have also the forces and 
phenomena characteristic of psychical or spiritual 
life, i.e., spirit individuality, immortal life, the 
study of which constitutes the new science of 
Christology. Seventh, the plane of spirit, — i.e. 
intelligent power, — the only eternal absolute 
substance ; that part of Deity, so to speak, back 
of nature, the study of which constitutes the 
science of Theology. Popular theology is little 
more than an accumulation of disconnected tradi- 
tional authority - — abundant materials, but no 
science ; piles of brick and stone, but no building. 
Now, to theology, the existence of God, like our 
own existence, is more certain than any scientific 
theory, than anything can possibly be made by 
proof. From this standpoint, therefore, theology 
is right in rejecting evolution as conflicting with 
still more certain truth. The mistake which the- 



6 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

ology makes is in imagining that there is any such 
conflict at all. A scientific theology must neces- 
sarily be universal theology, a theology for the 
whole race. Its general acceptance of evolution 
would have debauched the true spirit of religion. 
The time was not yet ripe for a scientific theory. 
The gound must first be cleared and a solid foun- 
dation built ; an insuperable obstacle to hearty 
rational acceptance must first be removed, and an 
inductive basis must be laid. 

The obstacle removed. — The obstacle in the 
way of the acceptance of a scientific theory is the 
prevalent notion concerning the nature of spirit ; it 
is supposed to be supernatural. Until about forty 
years ago life force was believed to be supernatural. 
If we can show that spirit is natural and not super- 
natural I think the obstacle will be removed. Can 
we show this ? I think we can. 

Until about forty years ago the different forces 
of nature, such as gravity, electricity, magnetism, 
light, heat, chemical affinity, etc., were supposed 
to be entirely distinct. The realm of nature was 
divided up into a number of distinct and inde- 
pendent principalities, each subject to its own sov- 
ereign force and ruled by its own petty laws. 
About that time it began to be evident, and is now 
universally acknowledged, that all these forces are 
but different forms of one universal omnipresent 
energy (which I call the Christ principle or entity, 
and which forms the basis of the Christ-principle 



PLANES OF DIVINE ENERGY. 7 

theory), and are transmutable into one another 
back and forth without loss. This is the doctrine 
of correlation of forces and conservation of energy, 
one of the grandest ideas of modern times. But 
one force seemed still to be an exception. Life 
force was still believed to be a peculiar, mysterious 
principle or entity, standing above other forces and 
subordinating them ; not correlated with, not trans- 
mutable into nor derivable from other and lower 
forces, and therefore in some sense supernatural. 
But soon vital force also yielded to the general 
law of correlation of natural forces. Vital forces 
are also transmutable into and derivable from 
physical and chemical forces. Sun force, falling 
on the green leaves of plants, is absorbed and con- 
verted into vital force, disappears as light to reap- 
pear as life. The amount of life force generated 
is measured by the amount of light extinguished. 
The same is true of animal life. As in the steam- 
engine the locomotive energy is derived from the 
fuel consumed and measured by its amount, so in 
the animal body the animal heat and animal force 
are derived from and measured by the food and 
tissue consumed by combustion. Thus vital force 
may be regarded as so much force withdrawn from 
the general fund of chemical and physical forces, 
to be again refunded without loss at death. This 
obstacle is now removed; and vital force falls 
into the same category as other natural forces. 
This has already been shown in the taxonomic 



8 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

scale of force : 1, the plane of elements ; 2, the 
plane of chemical compounds; 3, the plane of 
vegetal life ; 4, the plane of animal life ; 5, the 
plane of rational life ; and 6, the plane of psy- 
chic life or Christ plane, the plane of spirit in- 
dividuality, Le.^ immortality ; in a word the plane 
of spirit life in the physical body. It has been 
believed that spirit stood above other forces 
and subordinated them ; not correlated with, nor 
trans mutable into nor derivable from other and 
lower forces, and therefore in some sense super- 
natural. But now spirit force must also yield to 
the general law of correlation of natural forces. 
Spirit forces are also transmutable into and de- 
rivable from physical and chemical forces. This 
obstacle is, therefore, now removed; and spirit 
force falls in the same category as other natural 
forces. We ought to be able to arrive at an 
hypothetical understanding of the method of spirit 
transmutation from an examination of our knowl- 
edge of the transmutation of spirit in our own 
lives. Jesus was not only a quickened spirit, but 
also a quickening spirit. If he quickened the dor- 
mant spirit embryo in others he must have given 
of his own spirit life. Jesus said, " The words that 
I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life." 
Thus he gave of his spirit life for the world. Not 
only Jesus, but every one who rises to the plane of 
psychic life or Christ plane, must give of their 
spirit life for the world. Thus men are not simply 



PLANES OF DIVINE ENERGY, 9 

working out tlieir own salvation ; God also is work- 
ing in them to will and to do of his good pleasure. 
Not only on the psychic plane, but on every plane 
of divine energy. Carlyle says, " Lay this solemnly 
to heart ; this is my deepest counsel to him ! The 
idea you have once spoken^ even if it were an idea, 
is no longer yours ; it is gone from you ; so much 
life and virtue is gone, and the vital circulations 
of yourself and your destiny and activity are 
henceforth deprived of it. If you could not get 
it spoken, if you could still constrain it into 
silence, so much the richer are you. Better keep 
your idea while you can : let it circulate, and there 
fructify ; inarticulately inciting you to good activi- 
ties ; giving to your whole spiritual life a ruddier 
health." The same is also true on the psychic or 
Christ plane. This touches, of course, that deeper, 
that deepest of all questions, viz., the essential 
nature and origin of natural forces ; how far they 
are independent and self-existent, and how far they 
are only modes of divine energy. This has been 
believed to be a question of philosophy, not of 
science. The Christ-principle theory comes for- 
ward and substitutes second causes for first cause, 
natural for supernatural, and thus breaks the 
bonds of supernaturalism in the realm of psychic 
life, and the question falls into the domain of 
science. 

Now, then, at last, the obstacle of supernatural- 
ism in the realm of religion having been removed 



10 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

by the establishment of the doctrine of correlation 
of natural forces and the extension of this doctrine 
to embrace also life force and spirit force, thus, 
at last, the obstacle is removed, — the ground is 
cleared. 

The basis laid. — But science is not content 
with removal of a priori objections. She must, 
also, have positive proofs. The ground must not 
only be cleared, but a true inductive basis of facts, 
and especially of laws, must be laid. The one 
grand idea underlying the Christ-principle theory 
is the essential identity of the laws of psychic 
evolution and material evolution. The Christ-prin- 
ciple theory insists that the laws of embryonic 
development (ontogeny) are also tlie laws of 
psychic development. Spirit in the individual 
passes successively through the stages of germ, 
egg^ embryo, and infant, to maturity; viz., germ 
and Qgg in the child, embryo in manhood, spirit- 
birth, from infant to maturity in the complete 
psychic man — divine or Christ man. This as- 
cending series of genetically connected stages of 
psychic evolution is called the embryonic or Onto- 
genic series.^ 

The Taxonomic series ^ has already been given. 
1, the plane of elements ; 2, the plane of chemical 
compounds ; 3, the plane of vegetal life ; 4, the 

1 Ontos-gennao (individual-making, or genesis of the in- 
dividual). 

2 Taxis-nomos (relating to science of arrangement). 



PLANES OF DIVINE ENERGY. 11 

plane of animal life ; 5, the plane of rational life ; 
and 6, the plane of psychic life or Christ plane. 

Finally, there is still a third series. Commen- 
cing with the lowest form of divine energy passing 
into matter and form, — a process of divine incar- 
nation, — passing onward and upward through the 
planes of elements and chemical compounds, we 
have germ in the plant, Qgg in the animal, embryo 
in the primitive and civilized man, birth, infant 
to maturity in the divine or Christ man. Here we 
again find the lowest form of divine energy, and 
then successive forms more and more complex in 
the interaction of correlated parts, until we reach 
the most complex relations and therefore the high- 
est psychic development in the Christ-man. This 
series we will call the Phylogenic.^ 

Now, to the Christ theory more than to any 
other theory is due the credit of having established 
the laws of successive planes of divine energy^ 
successive planes of incarnation of divine energy., and 
the laws of succession of psychic forms. The lowest 
form of incarnation of divine energy is seen in the 
elements ; the second in chemical compounds by 
which two gases unite to produce the dewdrop; 
third, in the plant or vegetal life ; fourth, in 
animal life ; fifth, rational life ; sixth, psychic life 
or spirit life ; and seventh, pure spirit, or spirit 
separated from matter — spirit hack of nature. 

Thus the successive planes of incarnation corre- 

1 Phule-gennao (kind-making) ; genesis of the race. 



12 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

spond to the natural history of creation — the six 
creative days or periods and the seventh day or 
period of rest; the six planes of incarnation of 
divine energy and matter, the seventh plane the 
return to pure spirit — rest. 

The phenomena of the external world — God in 
nature — are far too complex and far too much 
affected by disturbing forces and modifying condi- 
tions to be understood at once by bare, unaided 
intellectual insight. They must first be simplified. 
The physicist contrives artificial phenomena under 
ideal conditions. He removes one complicated 
condition after another, one disturbing cause and 
then another, watching meanwhile the result, until 
finally the necessary condition and the true cause 
are discovered. On this method rests the whole 
fabric of the physical and chemical sciences ; and 
on this method must also rest the scientific theory 
of spirit in nature, viz., Christology. 

When we rise into the plane of josyeliic life, the 
phenomena of nature become still more complex 
and difficult to understand directly ; and yet just 
here, where we are the most powerless without 
some method, our method of experiment almost 
wholly fails us. The phenomena of psychic life 
are not only far more complex than those of animal 
life, but the conditions of psychic life are so nicely 
adjusted, the equilibrium of forces so delicately 
balanced, that when we attempt to introduce our 
clumsy hands we are in danger of overthrowing 



PLANES OF DIVINE ENERGY. 13 

the equilibrium. What shall we do? In this 
dilemma we find that nature herself has already 
prepared for us, ready to hand, an elaborate series 
of simplified conditions equivalent to experiments. 
The phenomena of psychic life on the Christ plane 
are, indeed, far too complex to be at once under- 
stood — the problem of psychic life too hard to be 
solved — in the divine or Christ man ; but, as we 
go down the psychic scale or planes, complicating 
conditions are removed one by one, the phenomena 
of psychic life become simpler and simpler, until 
in the Christ principle we finally reach the simplest 
possible expression of divine energy. The equation 
of psychic life, ^.e., Christ life or divine life in man, 
God in nature, is reduced to its simplest terms, 
and now, if ever, we begin to understand the true 
value of the unknown quantity. This is the psychic 
history series, or Taxonomic series of psychic evo- 
lution. Again, nature has prepared, and is now 
preparing daily before our eyes, another series of 
gradually simplified conditions. Commencing with 
the mature psychic condition of the individual Christ 
life, or divine life — for example, a Christ-man — 
and going backward along the line of individual 
entity through the stages of spirit embryo, Qgg^ and 
germ, we find again the phenomena of psychic life 
becoming simpler and simpler, until we again reach 
the simplest condition conceivable in the single 
Christ principle which may be called the germ of 
psychic life. When this Christ-principle germ has 



14 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

completed its evolution we have the Christ-man, 
divine man, or Son of man. This, as already ex- 
plained, is the embryonic or Ontogenic series of 
psychic evolution. Again, that there be no excuse 
for man's ignorance of the laws of psychic life and 
the laws of succession of divine incarnation, — God 
in nature, — nature has prepared still another 
series ; and this the grandest of all, for it is the 
cause of both the others. Commencing with psychic 
life in the divine or Christ man, and going back 
along the track of psychic evolution, from the 
Christ plane through rational life, animal life, 
vegetal life, chemical compounds, elements, to the 
very dawn of divine effluence or Christ principle, 
— the first syllable of recorded time, — we find 
again a series of planes of divine incarnation grow- 
ing simpler and simpler until we again reach the 
simplest condition of divine energy in the lowest 
conceivable form, the Christ principle. This as 
we have already seen, is the evolution or Phylo- 
genic series of psychic evolution. Each plane rep- 
resenting a completed cycle of the Christ principle, 
a completed cycle of the Christ principle on the 
plane of elements immediately raises the Christ 
principle to the next higher plane, to begin a new 
cycle. A completed cycle of' the Christ principle 
on the plane of chemical compounds immediately 
raises the Christ principle to the next higher plane, 
to begin a new cycle. The Christ principle or 
divine energy has plainly moved in successive 



PLANES OF DIVINE ENERGY. 15 

cycles. The tide of psychic evolution rose ever 
higher and higher, without ebb, but it nevertheless 
came in successive planes, each higher than the 
preceding, until itself reaches its goal or comple- 
tion on the psychic or Christ plane in the psychic 
or Christ life ; viz., divine or Christ man. We have 
already explained these three series, only in this 
connection it suits our purpose to take the terms 
backward. 

Now, it is by the comparison of the terms of each 
of these evolution series going up and down, and 
watching the first appearance, the growth, and the 
perfecting of tissue, organs, functions, and by com- 
parison of the three series with one another, term 
by term — I say it is wholly by comparison of this 
kind that biology has in recent times become a true 
inductive science. This is the " method of compar- 
ison^ It is the great method of research in all 
those departments which cannot be readily man- 
aged by the method of experiment. It has already 
regenerated biology, and is now applied with like 
success in sociology under the name of historic 
method. Yes ; anatomy became scientific only 
through comparative anatomy, physiology through 
comparative physiology, embryology through com- 
parative embryology, sociology through compara- 
tive sociology, and psychology through comparative 
psychology, i.e.^ by the study of the mind or in- 
tellect of man in relation to what corresponds to 
it in lower animals. May we not add, Chris- 



16 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

tology will become truly scientific only through 
comparative Christology, z.e., by the study of the 
spirit or Christ in the divine man in relation 
to what corresponds to it in man and in lower 
animals ? 

Now, I ask is there not room for Christology, 
^^e., a scientific theory of the Christ principle or 
divine energy in nature — God in nature — between 
psychology and theology ? Psychology is only the 
elements of Christology ; and although a scientific 
theology might embrace Christology, it no doubt 
will be a long time before we have a scientific the- 
ology. Moreover, would not Christology aid in 
breaking the bonds of an irrational traditionalism 
and supernaturalism in the domain of religion, and 
lay a rational foundation for a pure monotheism 
and spiritual religion? 

Now, while it is true that comparison, like all 
other methods, has been used from the earliest 
dawn of thought in a loose and imperfect way, 
yet it is only in very recent times that it has been 
organized, systematized, perfected, as a true scien- 
tific method, as a great instrument of research. 

It is a curious and most significant fact that the 
successive stages of psychic development of the 
individual in the higher form,s of any group (onto- 
genic series) resemble the stages of increasing 
complexity of differentiated structure in ascend- 
ing the animal scale in that group (taxonomic 
series), and especially the forms and structure of 



PLANES OF DIVINE ENERGY. 17 

that group in successive psychic epochs (phylo- 
genic series). In other words, the individual in 
psychic embryonic development passes through 
temporary stages which are similar in many 
respects to permanent or mature conditions in 
some of the lower forms in the same group. To 
give an example for the sake of clearness : Man in 
his early stages of psychic embryonic development 
is essentially an animal ; the animal has conscious- 
ness; the infant has consciousness, and if it stopped 
here in its psychic development it would be essen- 
tially an animal. But it does not stop ; for this is 
a temporary stage, and not a permanent condition. 
It passes through the conscious stage and through 
several other temporary stages until it reaches self- 
consciousness and rational life. The Christ-man, 
in the higher psychic embryonic development when 
the psychic embryo comes to spirit birth on the 
Christ plane, has first only consciousness of a 
higher life within himself, of new powers, and if 
he stopped here he would be classed in the rational 
or intellectual category or plane of rational life. 
But he does not stop here ; for this is only a tempo- 
rary stage, not a permanent condition. He passes 
through this stage and through several other tem- 
porary stages, and onward to the highest condition 
attained by man, spirit consciousness, spirit indi- 
viduality, a consciousness of the indwelling spirit 
or Christ ; a consciousness of whence he came. 
For example : Jesus said, " Though I bear record 



18 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

of myself, yet my record is true : for I know 
whence I came, and whither I go ; but ye cannot 
tell whence I came, and whither I go." " Ye are 
from beneath," 2.e., on a plane below me ; " I am 
from above," i.e.^ on a plane above you. " Ye are 
of this world," i.e.^ material or sense world; "I 
am not of this world," I am of the psychic or spirit 
world. "Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no 
man," i.e.^ I cannot judge for you ; every man and 
animal is as right on his own plane as I am on 
my plane. 

Now, if we could trace perfectly the successive 
psychic forms back through the psychologic planes 
to their origin, to their plane of the incarnation of 
the Christ principle or divine energy, the resem- 
blance of this series to the stages of the develop- 
ment of the individual would doubtless be still 
closer. Surely this fact, if it be a fact, is wholly 
inexplicable except by the theory of psychic deri- 
vation or psychic evolution. The embryo or 
Christ principle of a higher individual of any 
group passes now through stages represented by 
lower forms, because in its evolution its ancestors 
did actually have these forms. To ask one ques- 
tion for the sake of clearness : Can spirit be cre- 
ated, so to speak, out of hand at the present time 
and not pass through all these plaries of incaryia- 
tion ? I answer. No. If it could be created now 
out of hand it could have been created at the 
beginning. It is equally evident that, without this 



PLANES OF DIVINE ENERGY. 19 

gestative method of creation of spirit^ the whole 
geological history of the earth previous to man 
would have no meaning. If spirit were made at 
once out of hand, incamation v/ould be super- 
natural, and there would be no need of a scientific 
theory of the vital union existing between God 
and nature — God in nature. 

Then divine incarnation is the cause of creation. 
And the relation of the vital union existing be- 
tween God and nature is expressed in the succes- 
sive planes of incarnation of the Christ principle 
or divine energy. I believe the scientific world is 
ready and anxiously waiting for a scientific theory 
of incarnation; for the supposed supernatural in- 
carnation of spirit has been the one exception to 
the otherwise universal law of cause and effect, or 
the law of continuity. It was, therefore, in open 
contradiction to the whole of modern scientific 
thought. Is it any wonder, then, that I predict 
that a scientific theory of divine incarnation will 
be welcomed with joy by the scientific world and 
the thinking popular mind? I believe modern 
scientific thought, like a rising tide which knows 
no ebb, has tended thitherward with ever-increas- 
ing pressure, but kept back by the one supposed 
fact of supernatural divine incarnation. May the 
theory of the Christ principle, or theory of the incar- 
nation of divine energy., lift the gate, and the in- 
rushing tide flood the Avhole domain of thought ! 

What, then, is the relation of the theory of evo- 



20 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

lution to the theory of the Christ principle, — 
divine incarnation, — or psychic evolution ? I 
answer, it is the relation of formal science to physi- 
cal or causal science. Evolution advanced Chris- 
tology to the formal stage ; psychic evolution 
carries it forward, to some extent at least, to the 
phydcal stage. All true inductive sciences, in 
their complete development, pass through these 
two stages. Science in the one stage treats of 
the laws of phenomena ; in the other, of the causes 
or explanation of these laws. The former must 
precede the latter, and form its foundation ; the 
latter must follow the former, and constitute its 
completion. The change from the one to the 
other is always attended with new impulse to 
science. 

To illustrate : until Kepler, astronomy was little 
more than an accumulation of disconnected facts 
concerning celestial motions — abundant materials 
but no science ; piles of brick and stone but no build- 
ing. Kepler reduced this chaos to beautiful order 
and musical harmony by the discovery of the three 
great laws which bear his name, and therefore he 
has been justly called the legislator of the heavens, 
the lawgiver of space. But had he been asked the 
cause of these beautiful laws he could only have 
answered, " The first cause^ the direct will of the 
Deity." A good answer and a true, but not scien- 
tific, because it places the question beyond the 
domain of science which deals only with second 



PLANES OF DIVINE ENERGY. 21 

or physical causes. But Newton comes forward 
and gives 2i physical cause. He shows that all these 
beautiful laws are the necessary result of gravita- 
tion ; and thus astronomy becomes a physical 
science. So until Agassiz the facts of geological 
succession of organic forms were in a state of law- 
less confusion. Agassiz, by establishing the three 
great laws of succession which ought to bear his 
nam*e, reduced this chaos to order and beauty, and 
therefore he might justly be called the legislator 
of geological history, the lawgiver of time. But 
when asked the cause of these laws, he could only 
answer, and did indeed answer, " The plans of the 
Creator." A noble answer and true, but not scien- 
tific. Darwin now comes forward and gives, partly 
at least, the cause of these laws. He shows that all 
these beautiful laws are explained by the doctrine of 
" origin of species by derivation with modifications ; " 
that these laws are not ultimate, but derivative from 
more fundamental laws of life ; and thus biology is 
advanced one step at least towards the causal 
stage. Newton and Darwin substituted second 
causes for first cause, natural for supernatural. 
They each in his own department broke the bonds 
of supernaturalism in the domain of nature. Again, 
had the theory of evolution been asked the cause of 
the laiv of evolution, it could only have answered, 
" The^rs^ cause^ the direct will of the Deity." A 
good answer and a true, but not scientific, because 
it places the question beyond the domain of science 



22 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

which deals only with second or physical causes. 
But now the Christ-principle theory or psychic 
evolution comes forward and gives a physical cause. 
The Christ-principle theory or psychic evolution 
shows that all these beautiful laws are the necessary 
result of incarnation of divine energy ; that these 
laws are explained by the doctrine of the divine 
mode of incaryiation or planes of divine energy, 
and thus a new science comes into being . and 
Christology becomes a physical science. The 
Christ-principle theory by establishing the facts of 
psychological succession, oy planes of divine energy ., 
and the law of incarnation reducing psychic chaos 
to order and beauty, might justly be called the 
legislator of psychological history, the lawgiver of 
cause. The Christ-principle theory substitutes 
second causes for first cause, natural for supernatu- 
ral. The Christ-principle theory has broken the 
bonds of supernaturalism in one department of 
reHgion. 

One more important reflection : Science says 
there are tivo., and only two, fundamental conditions 
of material existence — space and time. There are, 
therefore, two, and only two, cosmoses — space cos- 
mos and time cosmos. These have been redeemed 
from confusion and reduced to law and order and 
beauty — changed from chaos to .cosmos — by sci- 
ence. For this result we are chiefly indebted, in 
the one case to Kepler and Newton ; in the other, 
to Agassiz and Darwin. The universal law in the 



PLANES OF DIVINE ENERGY, 23 

one cosmos is the law of gravitation ; in the other, 
the law of evolution. Traced by analysis to its 
deepest roots of philosophic truth, the one law may 
be called the divine mode of sustentation ; the 
other, the divine process of creation. 

From the Christ-principle point of view I should 
say that there are three fundamental conditions of 
material existence — space, time, and cause. In 
that case there are three cosmoses — space cosmos, 
time cosmos, and cause or psychic cosmos ; the last, 
or psychic cosmos, having been redeemed from con- 
fusion and reduced to law and order and beauty — - 
changed from chaos to coomos — by Chris tology. 
For this result we are chiefly indebted to the 
Christ-principle theory or psychic evolution. The 
universal law in the space cosmos is the law of 
gravitation ; in the time cosmos, the law of evolu- 
tion ; and in the psychic cosmos, the law of incar- 
nation. Again, traced by analysis to its deepest 
roots of philosophic truth, the space law may be 
called the divine mode of sustentation ; ^the time 
law the divine process of creation, and the cause or 
psychic law the divine mode of incarnation. 

" The first cause., the direct will of the Deity," is 
expressed by divine incarnation, — divine energy 
passing into matter and form. 



24 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE UNION OF THE SUPREME WITH NATURE.— 
SEEKING AFTER TRUTH. 

I BELIEVE a correct theory of the union of the 
Supreme with nature would solve the problem of 
the divine or Christ in man, and place Christianity 
henceforth on an impregnable basis. Hence the 
practicability of a scientific theory of the Christ 
principle. As a working hypothesis let the Christ 
principle represent the lowest form of divine energy 
passing into matter and form — a process of divine 
incarnation. Psychic evolution emphasizes and 
enforces the law of divine incarnation and makes 
it at last universal. 

If man be indeed something more than a higher 
species of animal ; if man's spirit be indeed a spark 
of divine energy or Christ principle individuated 
to the point of psychic consciousness and recogni- 
tion of his relation to God ; if the Christ principle 
developing in the womb of nature through all 
geological time came to birth and independent 
spirit or psychic life in a Christ-man, and thus 
divine man alone is a child of Grod as well as a 
product of nature, the Christ-man becomes the 



SEEKING AFTER TRUTH. 25 

creator of Christianity ; and if, as has been the case 
in all ages, through the process of psychic evolu- 
tion, spirit continues to come to birth in man ; and 
as man rises to the psychic or Christ plane the tra- 
ditional and supernatural elements of Christianity 
will decline in importance and occupy a subordinate 
position ; while the principles of Christianity or 
psychical life will in time crystallize into a science 
— Christology — and be as stupendous a triumph 
for the psychic or divine life in man as was the 
progress of philosophy from Thales to Plato, of 
the human intellect. 

There is a grand question to be answered rela- 
tive to the beginning of the psychic or Christ life 
in ourselves or in the individual. When spirit 
comes to birth in the individual it is going to seek 
God with a filial love after its own genius. I 
believe I am the first who has attempted a logical 
solution of this question without resorting to reve- 
lation or traditional representations. " Philoso- 
phy," it has well been said, " may be a history of 
errors but not oi follies. It is not a folly to specu- 
late on the first or fundamental principles of 
psychic life within your own experience and seek 
for a logical solution. My first desire is to take 
the subject out of the realm of supernaturalism, 
and look the question squarely in the face. I have 
attempted to refer to one general law; viz., the uni- 
versal law of divine incarnation, all the transfor- 
mations of divine energy or Christ principle — the 



26 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

beginning of all things, the origin of the world 
— into its successive states or planes. Divine 
energy or Christ principle being endowed with 
intelligence and ceaseless activity rises into suc- 
cessive states or planes of intelligence. 

To trace divine energy or the Christ principle 
in all things is the general problem of the Christ 
theory ; and yet this theory is not akin to modern 
pantheistic philosophy, which seeks to find the 
first cause in impersonal force. It is far different 
from the pantheism which sublimates the person- 
ality of the Deity into all-pervading unconscious 
force. On the other hand, the Christ theory holds 
that the Christ principle or divine energy is the 
beginning of all things, the origin of the world, 
by first passing into matter and form, a process 
of divine incarnation, and then through matter and 
form creating on successive planes of intelligence. 
To illustrate : the divine energy on the animal 
plane in the beaver creates a dam to stop the water 
and builds a mud house. On the higher plane of 
rational life it creates art, literature, music, science ; 
and on the Christ plane it creates philosophies, 
theologies, metaphysics, and pre-eminently Christi- 
anity, i.e.^ Christology, the science of the concep- 
tions of and relations of God to nature — union of 
God with man, the science of psychical life, z.e., 
psychic or Christ life. 

If scientists did not originate Christianity, and 
have generally had but little taste for it, still its 



SEEKING AFTER TRUTH. 27 

truths may be systematized and explained by 
science, and form no small accession to the treas- 
ures of knowledge with which intellects on the 
Christ plane seek everywhere to be enriched. 

Why have the principles of Christianity remained 
so long in embryo ? Why has not the Christ in 
nature been revealed? Jesus said, in speaking of 
the world, " Even thus shall it be when the Son 
of man is revealed," i.e.^ when the origin of the Son 
of man is revealed. Before the origin of the Son of 
man, or Christ, — divine life in man, — was re- 
vealed^ spiritual life could be attained only by 
religious ceremonial observances. What a com- 
ment is this upon the greatness and littleness of 
man ! 

Christology, the science of psychic life, reveals 
the origin of the "Son of man," the Christ or 
divine life in man, to be the outcome or offspring 
of the union of the Supreme with nature, — a pro- 
duct of divine incarnation. 

Is the Divine energy, the Christ principle, 
that creates through incarnation in matter and 
form, exhausted? Did the pagan philosophers 
exhaust truth ? The Romans never added a sing-le 
principle to the philosophy which the Greeks elab- 
orated. The ingenious scholastics of the Middle 
Ages merely reproduced Greek ideas ; and even 
the profound and patient Germans have gone round 
in the same circles that Plato and Aristotle marked 
out more than two thousand years ago : and they 



28 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

only touched the borders of spiritual truth — the 
psychical world that is opening up before us who 
have reached the Christ or psychic plane. Jesus, 
standing on the Christ plane, said. Greater works 
than have been done through me shall be done 
through you ; that is, when you have reached the 
Christ plane, when spirit has come to birth in you. 
The creative power is not exhausted, but continues 
to create through every living form on its own 
plane. The answer of this question was put into 
the mouth of Job : " I will wait all the days of my 
appointed time until my change come ; " that is, 
until spirit comes to birth in me, and I come on to 
the Christ plane, then in my flesh shall I see God ; 
I shall see God for myself and not for another. . 

To know God should be the great end of life. 
We know him through the desire which like feels 
for like. When in us spirit or the Christ comes 
to birth, the divinity within feels its affinity with 
Deity and the divinity revealed in nature. " This 
is life eternal, that they might know thee, the true 
God, and the Christ whom thou hast sent," that is, 
produced. We cannot know God aright until we 
know by experience or have an experimental 
knowledge of spirit or psychic life, the Christ or 
divine life, the outcome — call it what you like, 
offspring or son — of the union of the Supreme 
with nature. Now comes Christology and explains 
this union to be a process of divine incarnation, 
and we all accept her explanation. Thus one by 



SEEKING AFTER TRUTH. 29 

one the phenomena of nature are explained by the 
operation of divine energy on successive planes, 
until the whole course of nature, as we now know 
it, will be, or conceivably may be, thus explained. 

On the Christ plane we no longer think of natu- 
ral forces as efficient agents, but rather as lower 
forms of divine energy. Thus, gravity, light, 
heat, electricity, magnetism, chemical affinity, vege- 
tal and animal life, are they not all ministering 
spirits, lower forms of spirit ministering to our 
necessities ; the divine energy in which we live and 
move and have our being? We are warned by 
one form of divine energy ; we breathe another ; 
and are sustain,ed and fed by other forms of divine 
energy. 

On the lower plane of rational life, in spite of 
the multiplicity of deities, Avorship centred in some 
form upon heat or fire or some one of the powers 
of nature ; the familiar " elements " were worshipped 
as gods. It will be observed that a long stride in 
psychologic generalization has been taken since 
that age of the world. Being on a lower plane 
themselves, they must needs worship a lower form 
of divine energy or Deity in a lower form. Man's 
conception of God must correspond to his indi- 
vidual plane of existence. Man immersed in the 
flux of sensualities can never fully attain a psychi- 
cal knowledge of God, the object of all rational 
inquiry. If man would study the phenomena of 
the psychic or Christ plane, he must leave the 



30 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

lower and climb up and stand on the higher or 
Christ plane. 

It may be objected, that we cannot live and work 
effectively under the Christ theory. I answer, 
that when spirit comes to birth in us we can live 
and work as naturally on the Christ plane under 
the Christ tlieory as we could on the rational plane 
under the old theories. On the Christ plane all 
things have become new. As individuals we are 
no longer under the old dispensation, but have 
'come into the 7ie^v or Christ dispensation. 

The Christ theory rejects the independent exist- 
ence of matter and the real efficient agency of 
natural forces, and returns to the old idea of direct 
divine agency, but in a new and more rational 
form, divine agency through the incarnation of 
divine energy ; and through the process of psychic 
evolution carrying up divine energy to successive 
planes of intelligence and so disclosing in every 
plane and condition of existence a germ of expan- 
sion. The world is divine in a state of becoming ; 
the divine or Christ in man, in and through which 
the divine in the world is to be consummated. 

I do not feel disturbed by the mass of conflicting 
theories. To me the Christ theory breathes into 
them the life-giving breath of unity. They are all 
on the way to a higher plane. The Christ theory 
is the decomposition of the whole into its separate 
parts ; it is seeing the one in the many. In the 
Christ theory a balanced theory is born into the 



SEEKING AFTER TRUTH. 31 

world, perceptive of the unity of the two elements, 
religion and science. 

The principal subject of the inquiries of the 
Christ theory is not Deity itself, the first cause, the 
supreme intelligence of the universe ; but the cause 
of psychic existence in the world. The Christ 
theory holds that all things that exist are created 
by supreme intelligence, but on successive planes 
of intelligence ; supreme intelligence being eter- 
nal but not immutable, the process or law of 
creation only is immutable ; spirit, i.e.^ intelligent 
power, being variable. 

The Christ theory seeks to delineate and enforce 
the practical side of Christianity, i.e.^ developing 
the Christ or psychic life in the individual. The 
great object of the Christ theory is the elucidation 
of psychical life ; it seeks to teach Christianity 
systematically from the immutable principles of 
psychic life. 

Although the Christ theory employs induction, 
its aim is to withdraw the mind from the con- 
templation of nature, and to fix it on its own 
phenomena ; to look inwardly rather than outwardly. 
Modern philosophers have given their attention to 
external nature. The Christ theory gives up 
speculations about material phenomena, and directs 
its inquiries solely to the nature of psychic life. 

It would seem that Christology, or a positive 
science of psychic life, began with Jesus. Aris- 
totle maintained that experience furnishes the prin- 



32 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

ciples of every science. While Jesus' experience 
and conception of psychic life were clear, there was 
not at that time a sufficient amount of psychical 
experience from which to generalize with effect. 
It is only by induction which proceeds from the 
world of experience that we can reach the higher 
world of cognition. 

Although Jesus brought psychic life or immor- 
tality to light, neither he nor his disciples placed 
psychic life on an impregnable basis, because the 
time was not yet fully ripe, because there was 
not a sufficient amount of experience of psychic 
life. While psychic life or immortality is attain- 
able, yet how few attain. 

The Christ theory pulls away all the supernatu- 
ral foundations on which Christianity has been 
erected, and indicates the mode by which alone a 
positive or true Christianity can be established. 
Chris tology points out the way whereby Christian- 
ity can be advanced, without founding or advocat- 
ing any new system. 

The difficulties in the way of certain traditional 
views have pressed with ever-increasing force upon 
the thoughtful mind ever since the birth of mod- 

o 

ern science. All along, an issue has been gather- 
ing, but put off from time to time by compromise, 
until at last the issue is forced upon us and com- 
promise is exhausted. And I believe that the 
Christ theory of psychic evolution will confer an in- 
estimable benefit on philosophy and on religion by 



SEEKING AFTER TRUTH. 33 

forcing this issue, and compelling us to take a 
more rational view of the Christ or psychic life in 
the individual. 

The Christ theory aims to force the seekers 
after spiritual truth into the path of inductive 
generalization, whereby alone trustworthy conclu- 
sions can be formed. The services which the Christ 
theory will render to Christianity are twofold — 
negative and positive. Negative inasmuch as it 
avoids all vain discussions of traditionalism and 
supernaturalism in Christianity, and strikes out an 
entirely new path : it has the wisdom to acknowl- 
edge ignorance when necessary, without attempt- 
ing to determine accurately what is capable, on 
the Christ or psychic plane, and what is not, of 
being accurately known. Positive inasmuch as it 
examines fearlessly the ground of psychic life 
directly submitted to our understanding, and of 
which the divine in man is the centre. That the 
psychic power of conceiving and combining ideas, 
as contrasted with the mere impressions received 
from matter and the external phenomena, is the only 
real manifestation we have of the omnipresence of 
Deity — of seeing God ; and this consists in con- 
tinuing the spiritual or psychic sight where the 
horizon falls on our natural vision, and by this 
psychic sight discovering the long lines of law 
which shoot in every direction ; and though man 
may not be able to apprehend it in its unity, 
because he is subject to the restraints of the body, 



34 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

he is nevertheless permitted to recognize it imper- 
fectly by calling to mind the eternal measure 
of existence by which he is in his origin con- 
nected. 



THE CHRIST IN MAN, AND NATURE, 35 



CHAPTER III. 

THE EELATION OF THE CHRIST IN MAN TO 
NATURE. 

There are two widely distinct views concern- 
ing the relation of man to nature, — the one as old 
as the history of human thought, the other only 
lately urged upon us by modern science. 

According to the one, man is the counterpart and 
equivalent of nature. He alone has — in fact is — 
an immortal spirit, and therefore he belongs to a 
world of his own. According to the other, man is 
but a part, a very insignificant part, of nature, and 
connected in the closest way with all other parts, 
especially with the animal kingdom. 

He has no world of his own, nor even kingdom 
of his own : he belongs to the animal kingdom. 
In that kingdom he has no department of his own : 
he is a vertebrate. In the department of vertebrates 
he has no privileged class of his own: he is a 
mammal. In the class of mammals he has no 
titled order of his own. He is a primate, and 
shares his primacy with apes. It is doubtful if 
he may enjoy the privacy of a family of his own, 
— the Hominidse, — for the structural differences 



36 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

between man and the anthropoid apes are probably 
not so great as between the sheep family and the 
deer family. 

Now, it is evident these two are only views from 
different points, psychical and structural. From 
the psychical, i.e.^ Christ-principle point of view, it 
is simply impossible to exaggerate the wideness of 
the gap that separates man from even the highest 
animals. From this point of view man must be 
set over as an equivalent, not only to the whole 
animal kingdom, but to the whole of nature be- 
sides. 

From the structural point of view, on the con- 
trary, it is impossible to exaggerate the closeness 
of the connection. Man's body is identical with 
all nature in its chemical constituents ; with the 
body of all animals in its functions, with all ver- 
tebrates, especially mammals, in its structure. 
Bone for bone, muscle for muscle, ganglion for 
ganglion, almost nerve-fibre for nerve-fibre, his 
body corresponds with that of the higher animals. 
Whether he was derived from lower animals or not, 
certain it is that his structure, even in the minutest 
details, is precisely such as it would be if he were 
thus derived by successive slight modifications. 

Now, of these two views, the latter has been in 
recent times enormously productive in increasing 
our knowledge. Anatomy has become truly scien- 
tific only through comparative anatomy ; physi- 
ology through comparative physiology; embyrol- 



THE CHRIST IN MAN, AND NATURE. 37 

ogy through comparative embryology. Sociology 
is fast following in the same line, and becoming 
scientific through comparatiye sociology. Is not 
the same true of psychology ? Will not psychol- 
ogy become truly scientific only through compara- 
tive psychology, i.e., by the study of the soul of 
man in relation to what corresponds to it in lower 
animals? Will not Christology become truly scien- 
tific only through comparative Christology, i.e., hy the 
study of the spirit of God in relation to what cor- 
responds to it in man f 

But this view and this method, when pushed to 
what seems to many their logical conclusion, end 
in identification of man with mere animal, of 
spirit with mere physical aiid chemical forces, 
immortality with mere conservation of energy, 
and thus lead to blank and universal materialism. 
Thus while it increases our knowledge it destroys 
our hopes. Is there any escape? There is. The 
two extreme views given above are not irreconcil- 
able. As already said, they are only views from 
different points, and therefore, although both true, 
are equally one-sided and partial ; and a true and 
rational theology, in this as in all other cases of 
vexed questions, is found only in a higher view 
which combines and reconciles these mutually ex- 
cluding extremes. Can we find such a view ? I 
think we can. Like the essential nature of matter, 
or the ultimate cause of force, this relation lies 
evidently beyond the domain of science. It re- 



38 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

quires some other kind of knowledge than intel- 
lectual to understand it. 

Physical and chemical forces and phenomena 
are indeed incomprehensible in their essential 
nature ; but once accept their existence, and all 
their different forms are mutually convertible, 
construable in terms of motion. But it is impos- 
sible by any stretch of the imagination thus to 
construe mental forces an|i mental phenomena. It 
may, indeed, be impossible to conceive how came 
the plane of material existence ; but standing on 
that plane, all phenomena fall into intelligible 
order. But there is another plane above this one, 
having no intelligible relation with it. We must 
climb up and stand on this plane before its phe- 
nomena fall into intelligible order. In a word, 
material forces and phenomena are, indeed, a mys- 
tery, but only of the first order. But mental and 
moral forces and phenomena are a mystery even 
from the standpoint of the other, and are therefore 
a mystery of the second order. But there is still 
another plane above this one, having no intelligi- 
ble relation with it, viz., the Christ plane, z.e., the 
spiritual plane. We must climb up and stand on 
this plane before its phenomena fall into intelli- 
gible order. Spiritual forces and phenomena are 
a mystery even from the standpoint of the second 
order, and are therefore a mystery of the third 
order. 

If man were the only animal we had to deal 



THE CHRIST IN MAN, AND NATURE. 39 

with, there would be no standing ground left for 
materialism. But there is still another difficulty 
which strikes deeper. It is that suggested by the 
lazv of evolution and enforced by the comparative 
method. 

Man, we say, is endowed with, is, in fact, an 
immortal soul. By what authority ? I ask. What 
is soul? We know things only by their phe- 
nomena: what are the phenomena of soul? Con- 
sciousness, will, intelligence, memory, love, hate, 
fear, desire, — surely these are some of them. But 
has not a dog or a monkey all these? Pressed 
with this difficulty, some have indeed felt com- 
pelled to accord immortal soul to higher animals. 

But we cannot stop here. If to these, then 
also to all animals ; for we have here only a slid- 
ing-scale without break. Can we stop now, and 
make immortality coextensive with sentiency? 
No ; for the lowest animals and lowest plants merge 
into each other so completely that no one can draw 
the line between them with certainty. We must 
extend it to plants also. Shall we stop here, and 
make immortality coextensive with life ? We can- 
not ; for life-force is certainly correlated with, trans- 
mutable into, and derivable from, physical and 
chemical forces. We must extend it into dead 
nature also. Therefore everything is immortal or 
none. Our boasted immortality resolves itself into 
indestructibility of matter and force, but not of 
form, nor of consciousness and personality. Such 



40 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

an immortality is of no value to us. Thus, then, if 
once we pass the gap between the plane of rational 
life, i.e.., soul., and psychic life, i.e.., spirit., there is 
no possibility of a stopping-place anywhere. The 
lower forces of nature, i.e.., divine energy, are inde- 
structible, therefore immortal, immortal in princi- 
ple but not in form. Divine energy on the lower 
planes does not attain a permanent form or organ- 
ism. Soul, that is, spirit in embryo, must come to 
hirth^ then it attains a permanent form or organism 
— personal immortality. 

Such is the difficulty presented by comparison 
in the taxonomic series. Take now the embryonic 
series. Each one of us individually was formed 
gradually by a process of evolution, from a micro- 
scopic spherule of protoplasm undistinguishable in 
structure from the lowest forms of protozoal life. 
Now, in this gradual process of evolution, where 
did immortal spirit come in ? Was it in the germ 
cell ? Then, why deny it to the protozoan ? Was 
it at the quickening, or at the birth, or at the 
moment of first self-consciousness, or at some later 
period of capacity of abstract thought? Again, 
when it did come in was it something superadded, 
or did it grow out of something already existing in 
the embryo or the infant ? 

Or take the evolution series from protozoan to 
man. This is similar in outline to the other two. 
Now, in the gradual evolution of the animal king- 
dom throughout all geological time, terminating 



THE CHRIST IN MAN, AND NATURE. 41 

in man, when did immortal spirit come in? Did 
it enter with life, or with sentient life, or some- 
where in the ascending scale of animals, or with 
the advent of man? If with man, was it some 
new thing added at once out of hand, or did it 
grow out of something already existing in animals ? 

This last, we are persuaded, is the only tenable 
view that can effect that reconciliation between 
the two extreme views now usually held. I 
believe that the spirit of man is developed out of 
the animan^ or soul, the self-conscious principle of 
man ; and that the soul of man was developed out 
of the anima or conscious principle of animals; 
and that this again was developed out of the 
lower forms of life-force, and this in its turn out 
of the chemical and physical forces of nature; 
and that at a certain stage in this gradual develop- 
ment, viz., with civilized man, the animan, or 
soul in man — i.e.^ spirit in embryo — came to 
birth, and immortal spirit came into being on this 
planet. It was not something superadded, but 
grew out of something already existing in the 
animan, or human soul, as the human soul grew 
out of the already existing anima, or animal soul. 
This is, in brief, the view which I wish to enforce. 
The reader must understand, however, that this is 
my own view only, and to be able to express my 
conception I had to coin the word " animan." It 
appeals, therefore, not to authority, but only to 
reason. 



42 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

First, then, I would draw attention to the fact 
that there is nothing wholly exceptional in such 
transformation with the sudden appearance of new 
powers and properties ; but, on the contrary, it is 
in accordance with many analogies in the lower 
forces, and therefore a priori not only credible but 
probable. For example, force and matter may be 
said to exist now on several distinct planes raised 
one above the other. There is a sort of taxonomic 
scale of force and matter. There are, 1, the plane 
of elements ; 2, the plane of chemical compounds ; 
3, the plane of vegetal life ; 4, the plane of animal 
life ; 5, the plane of rational life ; and 6, the psy- 
chic plane or immortal life. Each plane has its 
own appropriate force and distinctive phenomena. 
On the first operate physical forces, producing 
physical phenomena only — for the operation of 
chemical affinity immediately raises matter to the 
next plane. On the second plane operate, in 
addition to physical, also chemical forces, produ- 
cing all those changes by action and reaction, the 
study of which constitutes the science of chem- 
istry. On the third plane, in addition to the two 
preceding forces, with their characteristic phe- 
nomena, operates also life-force, producing the 
distinctive phenomena characteristic of living 
things. On the fourth plane, in addition to all 
lower forces and their phenomena, operates also 
a higher form of life-force characteristic of ani- 
mals, producing the phenomena characteristic of 



THE CHRIST IN MAN, AND NATURE, 43 

sentient life, such as sensation, consciousness, and 
will. On the fifth plane, in addition to all the 
preceding forces and phenomena, we have also 
the forces and phenomena characteristic of rational 
and moral life. On the sixth plane, in addition to 
all the preceding forces and phenomena, we have 
also the forces and phenomena characteristic of 
spiritual life in the body, t.e.^ immortal life. 
This sixth plane is the Christ plane ; and those in 
all ages in whom the spirit embryo comes to birth 
come out on to the Christ plane and into a new 
kingdom, i.e., the spiritual kingdom — kingdom of 
God. Hence it can no longer be said that man has 
no kingdom of his own. The spiritual man, or 
Christ man, no longer belongs to the animal king- 
dom, but by spirit birth he is raised above the 
animal kingdom into the spiritual kingdom. It is 
sown a natural organism, it is raised a psychical 
organism, i.e., a psychic or spirit individual — 
immortal spirit. By spirit birth the spirit embryo 
— soul — is raised from its embryonic death in 
life, sleep, to spirit or psychic life — resurrection. 

Now, although there are doubtless great differ- 
ences of level on each of these planes of incar- 
nation of divine energy, yet there is a very distinct 
break between each. Although there are various 
degrees of force, i.e., divine energy, characteristic 
of each, yet the difference between the characteris- 
tic divine energy is one of kind as well as of degree. 
Although divine energy by transmutation may take 



44 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

all these different forms, and thus does now circu- 
late up and down through all these planes, yet the 
passage from one plane upward to another is not a 
gradual process by sliding-scale, but at one bound. 
When the necessary conditions are present, a new 
and higher form of incarnation of divine energy at 
once appears, like a birth into a higher sphere. 
For example, when hydrogen and oxygen are 
brought together under proper conditions, water 
is born — a new thing, a new form of incarnation of 
divine energy, a new manifestation with new and 
wholly unexpected properties and powers, entirely 
different from those of its components. It is no 
gradual process, but sudden, like birth into a higher 
sphere or higher plane. 

Now, there is not the least doubt that the same 
is true of the order and manner of the first appear- 
ance of the natural forces, i.e.^ divine energy in the 
phylogenic series. In the history of the evolution 
of the cosmos, the forces of nature have appeared 
successively and suddenly when conditions became 
favorable. There was a time in the history of the 
earth when only physical forces existed, chemical 
affinity being held in abeyance by the intensity of 
the heat. By gradual cooling, chemical affinity at 
a certain stage came into being, was born, a new 
form of divine energy with new and peculiar phe- 
nomena, though doubtless derived from the pre- 
ceding. Ages upon ages passed away until the 
time was ripe and conditions were favorable, and 



THE CHRIST IN MAN, AND NATURE. 45 

life appeared — a new and higher form of divine 
energy producing a still more peculiar group of 
phenomena, but still, as I believe, derived from the 
preceding. Ages upon ages again passed away, 
during which divine energy took on higher and 
higher forms — in the highest foreshadowing and 
simulating reason itself — until finally, when the 
time was fully ripe and conditions were exception- 
ally favorable, soul^ self-conscious, self-determining, 
rational, and moral appeared — a new and still 
higher form of divine energy, but still, as I believe, 
derived from the preceding. This point, as I am 
persuaded, marks the birth of Adam. All before 
Adam, z.e., pre-Adamites, were soulless human be- 
ings. Again ages passed away, during which 
divine energy took on higher and higher degrees 
of psychic life — in the highest foreshadowing and 
simulating spirit itself — until finally, when the 
time was fully ripe and conditions favorable, spirit 
— self-conscious spirit — was born ; a new and com- 
pleted evolution of divine energy or Christ princi- 
ple — psychic life or spirit individuality — but still, 
as I believe, derived from the preceding. 

But some will ask, " How is this consistent with 
individual immortality ? " In answer, let me again 
remind the reader that with every new form of 
divine energy, with every new birth of incarnation 
of divine energy or Christ principle into a higher 
plane, there appear new, unexpected, and, previ- 
ous to experience, wholly unimaginable properties 



46 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

and powers. This last birth, psychic life — spirit 
individuality and personal immortality — is of 
course no exception. 

Why may not personal immortality be one of 
these new properties ? But this point is so impor- 
tant that we must treat it more fully. 

Remember that the forces of nature are naught 
else than different forms of omnipresent divine 
energy passing into matter and form — a process 
of divine incarnation. Remember that as just 
shown this divine omnipresent energy — Christ 
principle — has taken on successively higher and 
higher forms in the course of cosmic time. Now, 
this upward movement has been wholly by increas- 
ing individuation^ not only of matter, but also of 
divine energy. This universal divine energy, i.e.^ 
Christ principle, in a generalized condition, unindi- 
viduated, diffused, pervading all nature, is what we 
call physical and chemical force. The same energy 
— Christ principle — in higher form individuat- 
ing matter, and itself individuated, but only yet 
very imperfectly, is what we call life-force of plants. 
The same energy — Christ principle — more fully 
individuating matter, and itself more fully individ- 
uated, but not completely, we call the anima or 
soul of animals. This anima or animal soul, as 
time went on, was individuated more and more 
until it became what we call the animan or human 
soul. This animan or human soul, as time went 
on, was individuated more and more until it resem- 



THE CHRIST IN MAN, AND NATURE. 47 

bled and foreshadowed the spirit of man. Finally, 
still the same energy, i.e.j Christ principle, com- 
pletely individuated as a separate entity and there- 
fore self-conscious, capable of separate existence 
and therefore immortal, the completed Christ prin- 
ciple or divine energy, we call the spirit of man. 

According to this view, the vital principle of 
plants, the anima or soul of animals, and the ani- 
man or soul of human beings are but different 
stages of the development of the Christ principle 
in the womb of nature. Ages upon ages passed 
away : finally in man it came to birth. In plants, 
animals, and the animan or soul of human beings 
it was in deep embryo sleep, — in the latter quick- 
ened, indeed, but not viable, — still unconscious of 
spirit individuality, incapable of independent life, 
with physical, umbilical connection with nature ; 
but now at last in man, the completed Christ prin- 
ciple, separated from nature, becomes capable of 
independent life, the Christ-man is born into a new 
and higher plane of existence. Separated, but not 
wholly ; Nature is no longer gestative mother, but 
still nursing mother of spirit. As the organic em- 
bryo at birth reaches independent material or tem- 
poral life, even so spirit embryo by birth attains 
independent spiritual or eternal life and thus be- 
comes a new creature. 

As the new-born child differs little in grade of 
physical organization from the mature but unborn 
embryo, but at the moment of birth there is a 



48 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

sudden and complete change, not so much in the 
grade of organization, but in the whole plane of 
existence, a change absolutely necessary for fur- 
ther advance, for another cycle of life,, even so 
at the moment of the origin of man, howsoever 
this may have been accomplished, there may have 
been no great change in the grade of psychical 
structure, but yet a complete change in the plane of 
psychical life — a change absolutely necessary for 
further advance, for another cycle of evolution. 
So at the moment of spirit birth in man, i.e., when 
the spirit embryo comes to birth, there may be no 
great change in the grade of psychical structure, 
but yet a complete change in the plane of spiritual 
life ; it has now reached the sixth or Christ plane — 
a change absolutely necessary for further advance, 
for another cycle of evolution. In both cases there 
is a sudden entrance into a new world, the sudden 
appearance of a new creature with entirely differ- 
ent capacities — a passing out of an old world, a 
waking up in a new and higher. According to 
this view, a Christ-man, ^.e., one in whom spirit has 
come to birth, alone is a cJiild of God, immortal, 
capable of separate spirit life, separate but not 
yet wholly independent of nature. As already 
said, nature is no longer gestative mother, but still 
nursing mother of spirit. We are weaned only by 
death, which separates the immortal spirit from the 
material body and becomes the door of entrance or 
birth into the seventh plane, i.e.., pure spirit or 
spirit separated from matter. 



THE CHRIST IN MAN, AND NATURE. 49 

Or again : As in passing up the organic scale 
we find all grades of completeness of organic indi- 
viduality, an increasing individuation of bodily 
form, which completes itself as a perfect organic 
individual only in the higher animals, so also in 
passing up the dynamic scale, divine energy 
(Christ principle) is individuated more and more 
until the process reaches completeness as a spirit- 
individual only in a Christ-man, i.e., one in whom 
spirit has come to birth. 

The more we reflect on this subject, the more we 
shall be convinced that completed spirit individu- 
ality explains, as nothing else can, all that is char- 
acteristic of a Christ-man, one in whom the Christ 
or divine principle has come to birth. This also 
means separate life, spirit viability, or immortality. 
Spirit consciousness especially seems to me the 
simplest sign of separate entity or spirit individu- 
ality, and its appearance among psychical phenom- 
ena the very act of spirit birth. 

We may imagine man to have emerged ever so 
gradually from animals. In this gradual develop- 
ment the moment he became conscious of self, the 
moment he turned his thoughts inward in wonder 
upon himself and on the mystery of his existence 
as separate from nature, that moment marks the 
birth of humanity out of animality. Again, the 
moment that our spirit becomes conscious of spirit 
individuality or spirit consciousness back of and 
separate from self -consciousness, that moment 



50 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

marks the birth of spirituality out of humanity, i.e.., 
the spirit organism out of the human organism. 
According to this view spirituality means some- 
thing; it means more than a spiritual habit of 
mind; it means spirit individuality, i.e.^ spirit 
organism capable of separate existence, in a word, 
immortality. 

We have emphasized spirit consciousness as the 
most fundamental sign of spirit individuality, and 
self-consciousness or human soul as that which 
constitutes person or the self-acting ego. It is 
this which constitutes free will and moral responsi- 
bility. A difference of exactly the same kind is 
found running through the whole gamut of human 
faculties as compared with corresponding faculties 
in animals. As animal consciousness is related to 
human self-consciousness, so exactly is animal will 
to human free will, animal intelligence to human 
reason, animal sign-language to rational grammati- 
cal speech of man, constructive art of animals to 
true rational progressive art of man. In every one 
of these the resemblance is great, but the differ- 
ence is immense, and not only in degree but also 
in kind. In every case it is like shadow and sub- 
stance, promise and fulfilment. Self-consciousness 
is the shadow, while spirit consciousness or spirit 
individuality is the substance ; or, still better, self- 
consciousness is the embryo, while spirit-conscious- 
ness or spirit individuality is the child, the new 
creature. The change from the one to the other 



THE CHRIST IN MAN, AND NATURE. 51 

is like to a birth into a higher plane, the beginning 
of another cycle of evolution. 

Here, then, a Christ-man, i.e.., a man in whom 
the Christ principle has come to spirit birth, stands 
as the terminal bud of the psychical tree of life, the 
end of a mighty process, with a meaning which in- 
terprets the process, but which cannot be identified 
with it. In the beginning of psychical life it was 
but an appendage of the body, in the end the body 
is but the vehicle of the spirit organism, i.e.^ im- 
mortal spirit in man. 

As I have already said, the fatal mistake in the- 
ology is in supposing that the animan or human 
soul is immortal, i.e.., capable of identical or indi- 
vidual spirit existence. It is the same question in 
relation to theology that is asked of the biologist, 
"Do you mean to say that every monkey is on 
the highway to become a man?" By no means. 
There is but one strait and narrow way to the 
highest in evolution as in all else, and few there be 
that find it — in fact, probably two or three only at 
every step. The animals mentioned above have 
diverged from that way. In their ancestral history 
they have missed the golden opportunity, if they 
ever had it. It is easy to go on in the way they 
have chosen, but impossible to get back on the as- 
cending trunk line. To compare again with the 
growing tree, only one straight trunk line leads 
upward to the terminal bud. A branch once sep- 
arated must grow its own way, if it grow at all. 



52 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

Do you mean to say that the soul of every 
human being is immortal ? By no means. There 
is but one strait and narrow way to the highest 
in psychical evolution as in all else, and few there 
be that find it. The multitude have diverged from 
that way, they have missed the golden opportu- 
nity. They have branched off into sensuous or in- 
tellectual pursuits, instead of developing the ter- 
minal bud of the psychical tree of life. It is easy 
to go on in the way they have chosen, but hard to 
get back on the ascending trunk line. Many 
human souls come into being, but few attain 
immortality. 

There are, however, a few thoughts so closely 
connected with what we have already said that we 
cannot pass them over. 

1. Every mental state corresponds with a partic- 
ular brain state, and every mental change with a 
brain change. We have, therefore, here two 
series, physical and psychical, corresponding with 
each other, term for term. For every change in 
the one, there is corresponding change in the 
other, both in kind and amount. Now, is not this 
the test of the relation of cause and effect? It 
certainly is. Yes, there must be a causal relation 
here, even though we are not able to understand 
the nature of the causal tie or connection. But 
which is cause, and which effect? If the view 
above presented be correct, then in animals hrain 
changes are in all cases the cause of psychical phe- 



THE CHRIST IN MAN, AND NATURE. 53 

nomena. In man alone, and only in his liiglier ac- 
tivities, psycMe changes precede and determine 
bfain changes. In man alone brain changes are de- 
termined not only by external but by internal im- 
pressions, the self-acting power of spirit on the things 
of itself Man alone perceives not only objects — ■ 
material things — but also relations and properties 
abstracted from the objects, i.e.y ideal things and 
spiritual things; and, moreover, not only relations 
between objects, but also relations between rela- 
tions or ideas. In man alone there is an inner 
world, spiritual world — microcosm — the things of 
which, are thoughts^ ideas^ etc., and which Jesus 
called the kingdom of God. " The kingdom of God 
is within you." This self-acting power of spirit, 
when it comes to birth, on the things of itself 
instead of merely reacting as played upon by exter- 
nal nature, is characteristic of man, and is a neces- 
sary result of spirit birth and a sign of severance, 
partial at least, of the physical bond with nature. 

2. Again, I have used the term Christ principle, 
I must justify it. I knew full well that it is the 
fashion to ridicule the term principle as meaning 
so many things. No one has striven more earnestly 
than myself to establish the correlation of divine 
energy with physical and chemical forces; and 
yet, if the view above presented be true, there is a 
kind of justification even for the term divine or 
Christ principle for the substance of which force is 
only the scientific name. For science, starting 



54 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

with the persistence of force alone, is obliged some- 
where to obtain spirit as the outcome. Then, 
starting with the Christ principle, we obtain a 
Christ-man or divine man as the outcome, Christ 
and divine being synonymous. There is a kind of 
reason and true spiritual insight in the personifica- 
tion of the forces of nature, and especially when 
we understand force to mean the divine or Christ 
principle in nature. All forces, by progressive 
dynamic individuation, are on the way to entity, 
but fully attain that condition only in a Christ- 
man. The power of man consists in the multitude 
of his affinities, in the fact that his life is inter- 
twined with the whole chain of organic and inor- 
ganic beings. While a Christ-man is separated 
from the world, as it were, he is still in the world, 
but not of the world. 

3. Again, to perceive relations and properties 
abstracted from material things, to form abstract 
or general ideas, to form not only percepts but also 
concepts^ is admitted to be a characteristic of man, 
a characteristic on which all our science and philos- 
ophy, and I may add revealed religion, rest. From 
time immemorial the vexed question has been de- 
bated, " Have such abstract and spiritual ideas 
any real existence, or are they mere names of fig- 
ments of the mind?" Now, if our view be correct, 
then there is one most fundamental abstraction, 
viz., spirit self which is indeed a reality. Spirit 
consciousness is the direct recognition of the one 



THE CHRIST IN MAN, AND NATURE. 55 

reality, spirit, of which all others are the sign and 
shadow ; the true reality which underlies and gives 
potency to all abstractions or ideas. 

4. Thus, then, nature through the whole geologi- 
cal history of the earth was gestative mother of 
spirit, which after its long embryonic development 
came to birth and independent life and immortality 
in a Christ-man, i.e.^ divine man, of which Jesus is 
the type. Is there any conceivable meaning in 
nature without this consummation ? All evolution 
has its beginning, its course, its end. Without 
spirit immortality this beautiful cosmos, which 
has been developing into increasing beauty for so 
many millions of years, when its evolution has run 
its course and all is over, would be precisely as if it 
had never been, an idle dream, an idiot tale signify- 
ing nothing. I repeat, without spirit immortality 
the cosmos has no meaning. Now mark : It is 
equally evident that without this gestative method 
of creation of spirit the whole geological history of 
the earth previous to man would have no meaning. 
If man's spirit were made at once out of hand, ^.e., 
a gift of the Holy Ghost, wh}^- all this elaborate 
preparation by evolution of the organic kingdom ? 

Thus, again, man is born of nature into a higher 
nature. He therefore alone is possessed of two 
natures ; a lower in common with animals, and a 
higher spiritual peculiar to himself. The whole 
mission and life work of man is the progressive 
and finally the complete dominance, both in the 



56 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

individual and in the race, of the higher over the 
lower. The whole meaning of sin is the humiliat- 
ing bondage of the higher to the lower. As the 
material evolution of nature found its goal, its 
completion, and its significance in man, so the 
Christ principle or psychical evolution finds its 
goal, its completion, and its significance in a Christ- 
man, divine man. As the Christ principle uncon- 
scious in the womb of nature continued to develop 
by necessary law until it came to birth as soul in 
man, so the new-born spirit in the Christ-man, 
both in the individual and in the race, attains 
through this newer birth the higher spiritual life, 
2.e., immortal life in the body, immortality. If 
immortality is the goal of psychic evolution, and 
completed psychic evolution is only attained in a 
divine or Christ man, then it follows that immortality 
is attained only in a divine man^ i.e.^ a man in whom 
spirit embryo has come to birth. Material evolu- 
tion finds its goal in man ; the evolution of force, 
or psychic evolution, in a divine or Christ man ; 
the Christ-man being the alpha and omega, the 
beginning and the end, of psychic evolution. 



DATA OF IN-DIVIDUAL IMMORTALITY, 67 



CHAPTER IV. 

DATA OF INDIVIDUAL IMMORTALITY. 

The idea of immortality cannot be linked with 
the early superstitions that sprang out of the 
childhood of the race — with f etichism and poly- 
theism and image-worship ; nor is it akin to the 
early thought that personified the forces of nature 
and so built up the great mythologies. These 
were the first rude efforts of men to find a cause 
of things, and to connect it with themselves in 
ways of worship and propitiation. But the idea 
of immortality had no such genesis. It is a late 
comer into the world. Men worshipped and pro- 
pitiated long before they attained to a clear con- 
ception of immortality. A forecasting shadow of 
it may have hung over the early races. A voice 
not fully articulate may have uttered some syllable 
of it, but the doctrine of personal immortality be- 
longs to a later age. It grew into the consciousness 
of the world with the growth of man, slowly 
and late, and marked in its advent the stage of 
human progress when man began to recognize the 
dignity of his nature. It came with the full con- 
sciousness of self-hood, and is the product of 



58 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

man's full and ripe thought. The idea of immor- 
tality, thus achieved, naturally allies itself to 
religion. It built itself into the foundation of 
Christianity, and became also its atmosphere and 
its main postulate, its chief working factor and its 
ultimate hope. It is of one substance with the 
true basis of Christianity, having the same concep- 
tion of man. It runs along with every duty and 
doctrine, tallying at every point. It is the inspi- 
ration of the system. 

Lodged thus in the conviction of the civilized 
world, the doctrine of immortality met with no 
serious resistance until it encountered modern 
science. But when modern science, led by the 
principle of induction, transferred the thought of 
men from speculation to the physical world, and 
said, " Let us get at the facts ; let us find out 
what our senses reveal to us," then immortality 
came under question simply because science could 
find no data for it. 

But science has its phases and its progress. It 
held itself to the prescribed task of searching mat- 
ter until it eluded its touch in the form of simple 
force, leaving it, so to speak, empty-handed. But 
it came no nearer to an answer of those imperative 
questions which the human inind will ask until 
they are answered : Whence ? How ? For what ? 
What is the meaning of the world ? Explain me 
to myself. Tell me what sort of a being I am — 
how I came to be here, and for what end. Such 



DATA OF INDIVIDUAL IMMORTALITY. 59 

are the questions that men are forever repeating to 
themselves, and casting upon the wise for possible 
answer. As much as to say, '' You have shown 
me of what I am made, how put together, and 
linked me to the invariable energy of the universe. 
Now tell me what I am ; explain to me conscious- 
ness. I confess myself to be all you say, but I 
know myself to be more ; tell me what that more 
is." Science, in its early and wisely narrow sense, 
could not respond to the demand. But now physi- 
cal science has yielded to the necessity of allying 
itself with other sciences — finding itself on their 
borders. Chemistry led up to biology, and this 
in turn to psychology, and so on to sociology. In 
short, it is found that there is no such thing as a 
specific science, but that all sciences are parts of 
one universal science. And we might assert that 
theology is parting with the conceit it had assumed 
as '^ queen of the sciences," and, clothing itself with 
its proper humility, is ready to accept a report 
from any who can aid it in its exalted department. 
Who is there who has not felt the rise of question- 
ings which have never been answered ? It becomes, 
therefore, of supreme importance to all earnest 
minds to inquire whether faith in immortality can 
be securely linked to intellectual conviction. Must 
it ever and always rest upon revelation alone, and 
can we never expect to find, outside of such revela- 
tion, at least such a re-enforcement of its claims as 
shall insure unassailable belief ? 



60 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

From this point of view the question, What has 
the science of to-day to say about the problem of 
immortality ? appeals to all. Viewing the universe 
from the standpoint of science alone, does immor- 
tality appear as the only reasonable conclusion ? 

If any large number of representative men of 
science were thus interrogated, undoubtedly by far 
the larger number would insist that such belief 
must ever rest upon grounds which science does 
not touch at all, and that all such questions are 
entirely beyond its scope. 

I believe the day is not far distant when we 
shall have a scientific theory of the derivative origin 
of spirit ; and upon this foundation, as the legiti- 
mate outcome, will be built a scientific theory of 
individual immortality. 

Beginning with psychic evolution or derivative 
origin of spirit^ when did individual immortality 
come in ? What point or epoch can be fixed as the 
genesis of individual immortality? 

The Christ-principle theory holds that the '•^forces 
of nature " are naught else than different forms of 
divine energy rising higher and higher, i.e.^ one 
plane above another, consequently forming differ- 
ent planes of incarnation of divine energy. Observe, 
then, we have 'planes of divine energy^ also planes 
of incarnation of divine energy^ and planes of im- 
mortality. 

The lowest forms of the Christ principle or entity, 
^.e., lowest forces of nature or divine energy, are 



DATA OF INDIVIDUAL IMMORTALITY. 61 

indestructible, therefore immortal ; immortal in 
principle but not inform^ as the Christ principle or 
divine energy has not yet attained a permanent 
form. The Christ principle being immortal on 
each plane, there must be planes of immortality^ 
each form, so to speak, immortal on its own plane. 
Each plane has its own appropriate form of incar- 
nation, i.e., distinctive phenomena. On the first, 
or plane of elements, operates the Christ principle 
or entity, i.e., divine energy in the form of physical 
forces, producing physical phenomena only ; for 
the operation of chemical affinity immediately raises 
force (divine energy) to the next plane of immor- 
tality. On the second plane of immortality operate, 
in addition to physical, also chemical forces, pro- 
ducing all those changes by action and reaction, 
the study of which constitutes the science of chem- 
istry. On the third plane of immortality, in addi- 
tion to the two preceding forms of divine energy, 
with their characteristic phenomena, operates also 
life-force, producing the distinctive phenomena, i.e., 
incarnation characteristic of living things. On the 
fourth plane of immortality, in addition to all lower 
forms of divine energy and their phenomena, oper- 
ates also a higher form of life force characteristic 
of animals, producing the incarnation characteristic 
of sentient life, such as sensation, consciousness, 
and will. On the fifth plane of immortality, in 
addition to all the preceding forms of divine energy 
and their incarnation, we have also higher forms of 



62 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

divine energy and incarnation characteristic of 
rational and moral life, i.e.^ self-conscious life. On 
the sixth plane of immortality, in addition to all 
the preceding forms of divine energy and their in- 
carnation, we have also higher forms of divine 
energy characteristic of psychical or spiritual life, 
i. 6, spirit consciousness, spirit individuality, indi- 
vidual immortality. Hence, on the sixth plane, 
viz., plane of psychic life or Christ plane, must rest 
the data of individual immortality from a scientific 
point of view. 

Observe, then, the Christ-principle theory holds 
that rational, self-conscious life came to birth in 
man. Then ages upon ages, races upon races of 
men passed away, during which rational life took 
on higher and higher forms, in the highest fore- 
shadowing and simulating spirit itself, until finally 
when the time was fully ripe, spirit or psychic 
life appeared. As the organic embryo at birth 
reaches independent material or temporal life, even 
so spirit embryo by hirth attains independent psychic 
or spirit life or eternal life, i.e., personal or indi- 
vidual immortality. But according to psychic evo- 
lution or the derivative origin of spirit^ psychic or 
spirit life comes to birth only on the sixth or Christ 
plane, therefore we reach individual immortality 
only on the Christ plane. According to this view, 
the psychic or Christ man alone is capable of sepa- 
rate spirit life — separate but not yet wholly inde- 
pendent of nature. Nature is no longer gestative 



DATA OF INDIVIDUAL IMMORTALITY. 63 

mother, but still nursing mother of spirit — spirit 
is separated from nature only by death or dissolu- 
tion of the material form in which spirit is incar- 
nated. Hence it may be said that spirit returns 
to God who gave it, returns to spirit or the psychic 
kingdom ; while all the other forms of the forces 
of nature, i.e., divine energy, return to nature. 
Thus all the lower forms may be regarded, on their 
several planes, as so much force withdrawn from 
the general fund of each plane to be again refunded 
without loss at death. 

Individual immortality, it may be replied, is not 
claimed by the Christ-principle theory for con- 
sciousness nor for self-consciousness, but for spirit 
consciousness, the characteristics or phenomena 
which occur after spirit has come to birth, and 
which may be denominated psychic or spiritual 
life. Spirit consciousness such as this is not the 
property of all, and is not possessed by every 
human being. Individual immortality is claimed 
for those only in whom spirit has come to birth. 

According to the Christ-principle theory, the 
divine energy or vital principle in plants, the divine 
energy or anima of animals, and the divine energy 
or rational life in man are but different planes of 
the development of spirit in the womb of nature ; 
i.e., different planes of divine energy, hence different 
planes of incarnation. In the psychic man, divine 
man, or Christ-man, at last spirit comes to birth. 
On the plane of rational life spirit is in embryo ; 



64 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

for as soon as spirit embryo comes to birth it 
immediately raises force or divine energy to the 
psychic or Christ plane. 

There was a time, before the conception of the 
idea of the derivative origin of spirit^ when spirit 
was supposed to have been always spirit; when 
spirit was regarded as a divine gift bestowed upon 
man from God, as it were, out of hand. God gave 
his spirit to man and there an end ; but that time 
is past. A new era is dawning. 

The proof of all this, i.e.^ the derivative origin 
of spirit, we owe to Christology, a science as yet 
in embryo. This science establishes the law of uni- 
versal continuity of incarnation through the infi- 
nite psychic cosmos, ^.g., one harmonious whole. 
Divine energy being carried down to the lowest 
form of force, is deposited or incarnated in elements, 
and elements are transmuted into chemical com- 
pounds, and chemical compounds into vegetal life, 
and vegetal life into animal, life and animal life 
into rational life, and rational life into psychic life ; 
the same psychic material being worked over and 
over again, passing through all these different 
planes of incarnation many times in the history of 
the psychic cosmos. According to this view, the 
phenomena of nature are naught else than differ- 
ent planes of incarnation of divine energy; the 
forces of nature naught else than different forms 
of the Christ principle or psychic energy ; the laws 
of nature naught else than the regular modes of 



DATA OF INDIVIDUAL IMMORTALITY. 65 

operation of that omnipresent Christ principle or 
divine energy in nature, Deity in nature. Ac- 
ording to this view, the universal law of incarnation 
is naught else than the mode of operation of caus- 
ing or bringing the cosmos into existence — the 
divine method of causation; the law of gravitation 
is naught else than the mode of operation of the 
divine energy in sustaining the cosmos — the divine 
method of sustentation ; the law of evolution 
naught else than the mode of operation in origi- 
nating and developing the cosmos — the divine 
method of creation; and Christology is the system- 
atic knowledge of the Christ principle or divine 
energy in nature. Deity in nature — a rational 
system of divine theology. 

It will be observed that I do not agree with 
the idea that the phenomena of nature are naught 
else than objectified modes of divine thought. In 
that case, God is a divine mechanic working out 
his thought in matter. The divine energy is in the 
mechanic, and not inherent in the form develop- 
ing by the process of evolution. To illustrate : The 
divine thought is in the artist working out that 
thought on canvas. When completed the picture 
is made out of hand, and not developed by force or 
divine energy inherent in the canvas and mani- 
festing itself in the picture. In that case, God is 
back of nature, and not immanent or inherent in 
nature. We admit that part of Deity so to 
speak, hack of nature is invariable because he is 



66 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

unchangeable ; but we also hold that that part of 
Deity, so to speak, immanent in nature is variable 
and changeable, otherwise the theory of the Christ 
principle, or the derivative origin of spirit, has no 
foundation ; and there are no planes of incarnation, 
but one divine will back of nature creating on 
these different planes, and not incarnate or imma- 
nent in nature. The Christ-principle theory holds 
that it is lower forms of the Christ principle 
or divine energy incarnating itself or manifesting 
itself in these lower forms. To illustrate : God is 
not in the great and strong wind which rends the 
mountains and breaks in pieces the rocks, nor in 
the earthquake, nor in the fire : these are but the 
operation or phenomena of the incarnation of the 
lowest form of divine energy, viz., elements. God 
is not in the dew-drop that sparkles in the sun- 
shine like a diamond in the grass : this is but the 
phenomenon of the incarnation of the second form 
of the Christ principle or divine energy, viz., 
chemical compounds. God is not in the blade of 
grass, nor in any of the productions of the vege- 
table kingdom : these are but the phenomena of the 
incarnation of the third- form of the Christ princi- 
ple or divine energy, viz., vegetal life. God is 
not in the fish or bird or animal : these are but the 
phenomena of the incarnation of the fourth form 
of the Christ principle or divine energy, viz., 
consciousness or animal life. God is not in the 
soul of man's brute ancestor, or the soul of the 



DATA OF INDIVIDUAL IMMORTALITY. 67 

savage : this is but the manifestation of the incar- 
nation of the fifth form of the Christ principle or 
divine energy, self-consciousness and rational life. 
Now we come to the sixth form of the incarnation 
of the Christ principle or divine energy; the 
Christ principle or divine energy has completed 
its evolution and reached its goal, viz., the com- 
plete man, divine man, or Christ-man. On reach- 
ing the sixth or Christ plane — psychic plane — 
we say God is here, for the nearest apprehension 
we can have of God is, the still small voice, the 
spirit or Christ in man. On this plane man 
enters the psychic kingdom, i.e., kingdom of God, 
new born. As the organic embryo enters the or- 
ganic kingdom at birth, and as self-consciousness, 
rational and moral life follow, so birth into the 
psychic kingdom is followed by spirit individu- 
ality, and spirit consciousness — individual im- 
mortality. 

In any process the end only becomes manifest 
when the process itself ceases. In the Christ-man 
the process of psychic evolution has reached its 
goal. To the Christ principle or divine energy in 
nature we can discern neither beginning nor end, 
and when we observe the unfolding or evolution 
of the Christ principle through a long series of 
forms guided at every step by purpose and culmi- 
nating at last in the psychic or Christ man, a 
cessation of the process, the only sound inference 
is that the end in view has only just been attained. 



68 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

The psychic man, or man on the Christ plane, 
has spiritual environment as well as physical. 
What is this spiritual environment for ? For what 
is it fitting him ? He must needs know the secrets 
of nature, the union or relation of God to nature ; 
pry into the formation of far-distant worlds, and 
tell their courses and periods. The worlds of time 
and space open before him, the psychic cosmos 
holds the secret. He interprets by spirit the work- 
ings of spirit everywhere about him. The means 
of development for the lower man are by him out- 
grown, ignored even, for higher ends. He is im- 
patient of them, feels them as restraints, and beats 
against them as the imprisoned bird against his 
barriers. He alone can treat this physical life as 
dross, and lightly toss it away for the sake of spir- 
itual truths. He alone has it in his power to bring 
spirit into action with right reason, to co-operate as 
an active agency with the supreme spirit, and he 
alone can build up a spiritual character by volun- 
tary action, in the light of spirit and in defiance of 
his animal inheritance. He claims individual im- 
mortality as his by the psychic process of spirit 
birth, the completion of psychic evolution. The 
psychic or Christ man is not fitted to this world. 
He is over-fitted. He has broken loose from phys- 
ical environment, and has passed up, through, and 
beyond it to the Christ plane and spiritual environ- 
ment. Nature has served its purpose and pro- 
duced him. Has this new environment no purpose, 



DATA OF INDIVIDUAL IMMORTALITY. 69 

and is it fitting him for no ulterior end? Why 
should he only just begin to learn the capacities of 
his being, the nobleness of his divine nature, the 
infinitude of the universe? If the psychic man is 
not the possessor of individual immortality, what 
a waste is here ! It takes the whole geologic and 
psychic history of the earth to make a psychic 
man. Each plane in psychic evolution is the heir 
of all the preceding. Can it be that the Christ- 
man or psychic man is the sole exception, and that 
for him alone of all created beings these facts have 
no significance ? Everywhere in nature we see the 
workings of a process keeping every step gained and 
steadily rising to the next, always taking over to 
the next plane all that accrued in the past, trans- 
forming inorganic into organic, tending then up- 
ward to higher planes of life, then passing into 
self-conscious mind or soul, passing on to the 
psychic or Christ plane, and culminating in spirit 
individuality and spirit consciousness. With the 
birth of spirit individuality man enters upon the 
scene as a new creature. And now shall the sixth 
plane, the plane of spirit freed or partially sepa- 
rated from matter, for that being prove like all the 
preceding, the inheritor of all the past? shall we 
take over to the next plane all that has accrued on 
the Christ plane, or shall the Christ-man prove the 
sole exception, and on the next plane of his life 
history leave behind the culmination of it all? 
Does spirit consciousness, the last gain of all, fore- 
tell no future ? 



70 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

These are facts of nature and Christology. Scien- 
tific thought cannot ignore them. Their interpre- 
tation is as legitimate, as necessary, as conclusive, 
as that of the rocks and stars. In the light of 
purpose they are as decisive of man's psychic 
future as the structure of his physical organism is 
of the past. If the record of the past is recorded 
in his skeleton, and the different stages of the for- 
mation of his brain, his present endowment of 
spirit is prophetic of his future. 

Here, then, the psychic or Christ man stands as 
the terminal bud of the tree of psychic life, the end 
of psychic evolution, the end of a divine process, 
with a meaning which interprets the process, but 
which cannot be identified with it. In the begin- 
ning psychic life was but an appendage of the body ; 
in the end the body is but the vehicle of psychic 
life, viz., indwelling spirit or Christ. 

But the great end which Christology itself is 
forced to recognize and emphasize, is the forma- 
tion of a personality or spirit individuality — of a 
spiritual character self-attained, and voluntarily 
brought into accord with the supreme will, and thus 
made capable of co-operating with that will both 
here and hereafter. This is the significance of the 
process of psychic evolution. This alone harmo- 
nizes all the facts. This is an end which alone sat- 
isfies reason, science, revelation, faith, and hope. 
This alone is commensurate with the whole psychic 
process. Spirit individuality and spirit conscious- 



DATA OF INDIVIDUAL IMMORTALITY. 71 

ness may be attained here. So surely as we begin 
it, has our true psychic life begun, and opportunity 
must be afforded for the completion of this new 
cycle of evolution, else is the whole process a 
failure. This spirit personality is individual im- 
mortality, Christology tells as certainly as science 
can tell us anything. Nevertheless, without a 
scientific theory of evolution, the theory of the 
Christ principle or divine incarnation and the deriv- 
ative origin of spirit would have been impossible. 
Without a theory of material evolution (or its 
equivalent) there would have been no theory of 
psychic evolution or Christology. Material evolu- 
tion finds its goal in man, psychic evolution in a 
Christ-man. 



72 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 



CHAPTER V. 

PSYCHIC KINGDOM, KINGDOM OF GOD. 

Let us again remind the reader that psychic 
evolution means, first of all, continuity. The law 
of psychic evolution, although it doubtless means 
much more, means, first of all, a law of continuity, 
or causal relation throughout the psychic cosmos. It 
means that, alike in every department of the psy- 
chic cosmos, each state or condition grew naturally 
out of the immediately preceding. In a word, it 
means that, in the development of the psychic 
cosmos, nothing appears suddenly and without 
natural cause, but, on the contrary, everything is 
the natural and usually the gradual outcome of a 
previous psychic condition. The law of evolution 
is now admitted by every one in regard to nearly 
everything. Evolutionists apply it to the whole 
course of nature ; psychic evolutionists or Christ- 
ologists ^ apply it to the whole course of the psy- 
chic cosmos. I said this is now admitted by every 
one in regard to nearly everything ; but this has 
not always been so. The world has come to its 
present position on the subject of evolution only 

^ Christology, the science of psychic life. 



PSYCHIC KINGDOM, KINGDOM OF GOD. 73 

by a very gradual process, and it is to be expected 
that its acceptance of psychic evolution will be 
still more gradual. Perhaps it would be well to 
state here, for it will prepare us for much that fol- 
lows, that evolution bears the same relation to 
biology, ^.e., science of life, as psychic evolution 
bears to Christology, i.e.^ science of psychic life. 
The doctrine of evolution as applied to biology 
means the derivative origin of species : the doc- 
trine of psychic evolution as applied to Christology 
means the derivative origin of spirit. 

There was a time, and that was not many 
decades ago, when all things the origin of which 
transcends our ordinary experience were supposed 
to have originated suddenly and without natural 
process — to have been made at once, out of hand. 
But now we know that they have become so only 
by a very gradual process, and still are changing 
under our very eyes. In a word, they have been 
formed by a process of evolution. Now we know 
that they have been changing throughout all psy- 
chological time, and are still changing. Not, how- 
ever, change back and forth in any direction in- 
differently and without goal, but gradual change 
from less perfect to more perfect condition, with 
more and more complex inter-relations, i.e.., by a 
process of psychic evolution. We are able now, 
though still imperfectly, to trace some of the 
stages of this evolution, as we are able to trace the 
stages of material evolution. There was a time 



74 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

when it was thought that the earth with substanti- 
ally its present form and climate was made at once 
out of hand, as a fit habitation for man and ani- 
mals. Now we know that it has been changing, 
preparing, becoming what it is, by a slow process, 
through a lapse of time so vast that the mind sinks 
exhausted in the attempt to grasp it. It has be- 
come what it now is by a process of evolution. 
Again, there was a time, and that not many 
decades ago, when it was thought that heaven, 
i.e.^ kingdom of God, was a place made at once out 
of hand, as a fit habitation for the souls of men. 
Now we know that heaven, z.e., kingdom of God, 
is not a place^ but a condition. Now we know that 
the kingdom of God or psychic kingdom has been 
changing, preparing, becoming what it is by a slow 
process, through a lapse of time so vast that the 
mind sinks exhausted in the attempt to grasp it. 
The kingdom of God has become what it now is 
by a process of psychic evolution. 

The proof of the history of the earth, its hecom- 
ing what it now is, we owe to geology, a science 
born of the present century. This science estab- 
lishes the law of universal continuity of events 
through infinite time^ as astronomy does that of 
universal inter-relation of objects through infinite 
time. How great the change these two sciences 
have made in the realm of human thought ! 

For the data of the history of the psychic king- 
dom, i.e.., kingdom of God, its becoming what it 



PSYCHIC KINGDOM, KINGDOM OF GOD, 75 

.now is, we must look to Christology, a science as 
yet in embryo. This science establishes the law 
of universal continuity of incarnation of divine 
energy through the infinite psychic cosmos. It is 
only in infinity that the perpetual changes of 
incarnation of divine energy can take place. We 
cannot separate the psychic kingdom, ^.e., king- 
dom of God, from the world ; we cannot separate 
God from the world, — in a word, Deity from 
nature ; nor can we admit the existence of a 
world in which Deity is not immanent or incar- 
nate. We see planes or stages of incarnation of 
divine energy in all the manifestations of nature. 
How great a change the science of Christology 
will make in the realm of intelligent thought can 
hardly be conceived. Until the birth of modern 
astronomy, the intellectual space horizon of the 
human mind was bounded substantially by the 
dimensions of our earth; sun, moon, and stars 
being but inconsiderable bodies circulating at a 
little distance about the earth and for our behoof. 
With the first glance through a telescope, the 
phases of Venus and the satellites of Jupiter, 
revealed clearly to the mind the existence of other 
worlds besides and like our own. In that moment 
the idea of infinite space full of worlds like our 
own was for the first time completely realized, 
and became thenceforward the heritage of man. 
In that moment the intellectual horizon of man was 
infinitely extended. So, also, until the birth of 



76 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

geology, about the beginning of the present cen- 
tury, the intellectual time horizon of the human 
mind was bounded by six thousand years. With 
the birth of geology came the birth of the idea of 
infinite time, of which the life of humanity is but 
an epoch ; and again the intellectual horizon of 
man was infinitely extended. Until the concep- 
tion of Christology, the intellectual psychic hori- 
zon of the human mind was bounded theologically 
by four walls. Heaven, i.e., the kingdom of God, 
was thought of as a place, also Christ's kingdom. 
But with the discovery of the derivative origin of 
spirit and planes of incarnation of divine energy 
it was clearly revealed that the first spirit embryo 
that came to birth on the Christ or psychic plane 
opened the psychic kingdom on this planet, that 
is, " on earth." In that moment the idea of the 
psychic kingdom on earth and the idea of the 
infinite psychic kingdom, full of psychic king- 
doms like our own, which make up or comprise 
the kingdom of God or psychic cosmos, were 
for the first time completely realized, and became 
thenceforward the heritage of man. In that 
moment the psychic horizon of man was infinitely 
extended. These three are the grandest ideas, and 
their introduction the grandest epochs, in the 
intellectual history of man. We have long ago 
accepted and readjusted our mental furniture to 
the requirements of astronomy and biology, but 
the necessary readjustment to the requirements of 
Christology is scarcely begun. 



PSYCHIC KINGDOM, KINGDOM OF GOD. 77 

Every one knows, because it is within the limits 
of ordinary experience, that every individual organ- 
ism now originates and gradually becomes what we 
see it, by a natural process, that is, by evolution. 
Again, every one on the Christ or psychic plane, 
^.e., every one m whom spirit has come to birth, 
knows, because it is within his experience, that 
■every individual spirit or psychic organism, that is, 
Christ-man, or divine man, now originates and 
gradually becomes what he sees the Christ life or 
psychic life in himself to be, by a gradual process, 
that is, by psychic evolution. If, then, there be 
any exceptions in ordinary experience, it is because 
the spirit embryo has not yet come to birth, that 
is, the divine energy or Christ principle incarnate 
in each individual has not yet completed its evolu- 
tion. Now, many Christ-men or psychic men are 
prophets. Pagan philosophers, and philosophers 
of all ages, were prophets, although unconscious of 
their divine mission ; prophets of that day when 
the science which explores and illustrates the 
works of God by proving God's immanence in 
nature should enlarge, enrich, and beautify man's 
conception of the great creative Father through a 
knowledge of the derivative origin of spirit, and 
man's relation or union with the Father through 
the union of God and nature, that is through the 
incarnation of the Christ principle or divine 
energy, or, as expressed by the apostle John, " the 
Word made flesh." 



78 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

There was a time " on earth " when there was 
no psychic kingdom ; there was also a time when 
there was no organic kingdom, and, we might add, 
no inorganic kingdom. Modern science heretofore 
has known only two kingdoms, viz., the inorganic 
and organic. If the psychic kingdom is a fact it 
should be recognized by science. Or rather we 
must include in the programme of science a king- 
dom already constructed, being the first in exist- 
ence, but the place of which in science has not 
yet been recognized. That kingdom is the psychic 
kingdom, ^.e., kingdom of God. 

Whence came the psychic kingdom ^'•on earth^^ and 
peculiar conditions? This takes us to the root of 
this whole matter — to the time when " the earth 
was without form and void," when only a mighty 
cloud of atoms filled the realms of universal space. 
Farther back than this science cannot take us ; here 
the mighty psychic and material evolution of things 
commences. Beginning with this original nebula^ 
or cloud of atoms, spirit, z.e., intelligent power, 
gave to all this mass of material atoms the impulse 
or energy by which they took the forms of indi- 
vidual things or became incarnate in individual 
forms. As divine energy is intelligent power, 
there must be to each plane of divine energy a 
corresponding plane of intelligence; in other words, 
there must be planes of intelligent power^ spirit 
being the highest plane of intelligence, while 
divine energy or Christ principle on the plane of 



PSYCHIC KINGDOM, KINGDOM OF GOD. 79 

elements is the lowest. We may not be able to 
identify intelligence with divine energy on the 
lower planes of elements, chemical compounds, and 
vegetal life, but on the lowest plane of animal life, 
the lowest plane of intelligence known to us we 
call instinct; while the higher plane of animal 
intelligence we call consciousness, and the higher 
-plane of rational intelligence, self -consciousness, 
and psychic intelligence spirit consciousness. If 
on the plane of rational intelligence we first dis- 
cover that we have within us a power and principle 
which rules over all the acts and functions of our 
bodily frame, how much more on the Christ plane, 
i.e.^ psychic plane of intelligence, we discover that 
we have a psychic life within us which we cannot 
call our own, and yet it is in the very highest 
sense our self ; that after we have become con- 
scious of it, without it we would be nothing : a 
psychic life which connects us with the psychic 
kingdom, and with the absolute source and foun- 
tain of being. The psychic or Christ man, in the 
highest sense, is no longer classed in the animal 
kingdom i he has a kingdom of his own, the 
psychic kingdom. 

It will be seen that we regard the law of psychic 
evolution in its wider sense, viz., the derivative 
origin of spirit, as axiomatic, and therefore requir- 
ing no further proof. We believe that to the 
scientific mind there is no other rational mode of 
looking at the subject of the origin of spirit. To 



80 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

such a mind, therefore, all that follows is but the 
deductive application of that law in the explana- 
tion of the phenomena of psychic life. But it 
takes time for the popular mind to readjust itself 
to new and revolutionary truth. Many minds, 
even among the most intelligent, have not yet 
accepted material evolution as the only rational 
mode of thought in regai-d to the origin of organic 
forms. We must expect that it will take a much 
longer time for the intelligent Christian to accept 
psychic evolution as the only rational mode of 
thought in regard to the origin of psychic man 
and the psychic kingdom or Christ kingdom, i.e.^ 
kingdom of God " on earth." 



THE CHRIST THEORY, 81 



CHAPTER VL 

THE CHRIST THEORY. — A SCIENTIFIC SYSTEM OP 
CHRISTIANITY. 

Aristotle says, " Science begins when, from a 
great number of experiences, one general conception 
is formed which will embrace all similar cases." 
Now, I believe that the Christ theory is such a 
conception, and that it embraces the experience of 
every individual who has attained the Christ or 
psychic plane ; and that is not all : it embraces the 
outline of a scientific system of Christianity, the 
foundation of a system of reconstructed Christian 
thought. In a word, the conception is the outcome 
of a gradual process of psychic evolution. Aris- 
totle also laid down the proposition that the idea 
which cannot of itself fashion itself into reality is 
powerless, and has only a potential existence, and 
that it becomes a living reality only by realizing it- 
self in a creative manner by means of its own energy. 
The idea or "conception of the Christ principle in 
this case by means of its own energy has become a 
living reality by working itself out or realizing it- 
self in the creation — viz., Christ theory, the theory 
of psychic evolution upon which the principles of 



82 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

Christianity are based. All will admit that Chris- 
tianity is a system for the development of psychical 
or spiritual life in the individual and in the race ; 
then, the goal of Christianity is psychic life, indi- 
vidual immortality. 

I assume that Christianity, like all other systems, 
must pass through a formative stage; that it could 
not reach a permanent stage so long as the intel- 
lect held to the traditional views of nature, of God, 
and of man. There can be no doubt that we are 
now on the eve of a great revolution in the Chris- 
tian system. But as in all revolutions, so in this, 
the first fears as to its effects are greatly exagger- 
ated. To many, both friends and foes of Christian- 
ity, psychic evolution and the derivative origin of 
spirit will seem to sweep away the whole founda- 
tion, not only of Chiistianity but of all religion, by 
demonstrating a universal pantheism. But I think 
all who are at all familiar with the so-called con- 
flict between religion and science will admit this is 
not the first time this cry has been raised against 
science. 

First, then, it came in the form of the heliocentric 
theory of the planetary system. We once thought 
the earth the centre of the universe, and so firm 
that it could not be moved. But science shows that 
it moves about the sun, and spins unceasingly on 
its axis. Every one is familiar with the nearly 
tragic result to the bold scientist. But now we 
look back with wonder that there should have been 



THE CHRIST THEORY. 83 

any trouble at all. Would any Christian now con- 
sent to give up the grand conceptions of nature 
and of God thus opened to the human intellect, 
the idea of infinite space full of worlds, of which 
our earth is one, moving in silent harmony as in a 
mystic dance? 

Next it came in the shape of the law of gravita- 
tion^ as sustentation of the cosmos by law and resi- 
de7it forces. The effect of this on religious thought 
was even more profound, though less visible on 
the surface, because only perceived by the most 
intelligent. It seemed at that time to remove God 
from the course of nature. But now who would 
give up this grand idea, this conception of law per- 
vading infinite space ; the same law which controls 
the falling of a stone guiding also the planetary 
orbs in their fiery courses? This is indeed the 
divine spheral music, inaudible but to the ear of 
science, accompanying the celestial dance. 

Next it came in the form of the antiquity of the 
earth and of the cosmos. The earthy which we had 
fondly thought made specially for us about six 
thousand years ago; sun, moon, and stars, which 
we had vainly imagined shone only for our behoof 
— these, science tells us, existed and each per- 
formed its due course inconceivable ages before 
there was a man to till the ground or contemplate 
the heavens. Some of my readers may still re- 
member the horror, the angry dispute, which fol- 
lowed the promulgation of these facts. But now 



84 PSYCHIC EVOLUTtON. 

who would consent to give up the noble conception 
of infinite time thus opened to the human intellect 
and become forever the heritage of man ? 

Next it came in the form of the antiquity of 
man. It is probable, nay, certain, that man has 
inhabited the earth far longer than we had pre- 
viously supposed we had warrant for believing. 
The controversy on this question and the dread of 
its result have indeed not yet entirely subsided. 
But I think all intelligent people accept it, and 
find the result harmless. 

Next it came in the form of evolution^ — of the 
origin of all things, even of organic forms, by 
derivation^ — of creation hy law. We are even now 
in the midst of the terror created by this doctrine. 
But what is evolution but law throughout infinite 
time? The same law which now controls the 
development of an egg has presided over the crea- 
tion of worlds. Infinite space and the universal 
law of gravitation ; infinite time and the univer- 
sal law of evolution ; infinite resident force, divine 
energy, and the universal law of divine incarnation.^ 
— these three are the grandest ideas in the realm of 
thought. The first is universal sustentation, the 
second universal creation by law, the third univer- 
sal inherent divine energy, the cause of creation, 
divine incarnation. There is one law and one 
energy pervading all space and stretching through 
all time. Christianity has long ago accepted the 
one, but has not yet had time to readjust itself 



THE CHRIST THEORY. 85 

completely to the other. A few more years and 
Christians will not only accept, but love and cher- 
ish, evolution also for the noble conceptions it 
gives of nature and God. 

Next, and last, it comes now in the form of 
the Christ theory of psychic evolution, the evo- 
lution of resident or inherent force, or divine 
energy, and the derivative origin of spirit, all con- 
ditioned on the union of the Supreme with nature, 
— divine energy passing into matter and form, — 
a process of universal divine incarnation, the origin 
of the divine or Christ in nature ; the outcome 
of which is a gradually individuated portion or 
psychic individuality — the psychic, Christ, or 
divine life in the individual. The exact nature 
of the relation of Deity to this gradually individ- 
uated portion we define as Son, or Son of man, of 
which Jesus is the type ; and he is also the type of 
the psychic, Christ, or divine life which the indi- 
vidual Christian is striving to develop within him- 
self, if he would attain individual immortality. 
And we define Christianity as a system of religious 
teaching best adapted to the development of the 
Christ or psychic life in the individual, and in the 
race. If Christianity fails in this, it fails to ac- 
complish its divine mission. 

It will be seen that the Christ theory forms the 
nexus between religion and science by reducing 
religion to science, or placing religion on a scien- 
tific basis, by giving a scientific solution to the 
problem of religion. 



86 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

Now, what do my readers think of this slow 
growth of our knowledge of psychic or Christ 
life in the individual? Are they disposed to 
laugh at the errors of past philosophers and tra- 
ditional theology ? So long as philosophers stud- 
ied psychical life introspectively, by purely mental 
speculations, our knowledge for ages amounted to 
very little. Now they have begun to put ques- 
tions to nature itself, to the divine in nature, the 
knowledge of divine or psychic life will advance 
by leaps and bounds. 

The main condition of scientific discovery is to 
know what is the proper question to put : it is 
half way to knowledge when you know what you 
have to inquire. We have seen theories rising 
and falling in slow succession. The theory of 
to-day is the error of to-morrow. Theories are 
an absolute necessity for the progress of science, 
because they collect in a common focus all the 
light which is shed upon a subject at a particular 
period. 

They may be, and often are, wrong. Still, the- 
ories are leaves of the tree of science which draw 
nutriment to the parent stem ; and though they 
fall, they produce by their decay material for the 
new leaves which the tree again puts forth. 

Even now we are far from a full knowledge of 
psychical life, though it is so familiar to every one 
on the Christ plane. 

The Christ theory brings Christianity down 



THE CHRIST THEORY. 87 

from the heavens to the earth ; it shows that the 
divine energy in man is natural^ that it resides in 
man and in the reacting environment; that there 
are three primary divisions or planes of our psy- 
chical nature, viz., sensuous plane, intellectual 
plane, and psychic or Christ plane ; and if we 
would attain individual immortality we must reach 
the Christ plane; in other words, that the spirit or 
Christ embryo must come to birth in us. A few 
more years and Christianity will come down to 
teaching facts, and Christians will not only accept 
the Christ theory, but love and cherish it also for 
the noble conceptions it gives of the divine or 
Christ in man, and the possibility of attaining 
psychic life, z'.e., individual immortality. 

The Christ theory makes Christ, the divine in 
nature, all and in all ; without Christ or divine 
energy was not anything made that was made. 
When we take this wider view of Christ we can 
understand many things in the Scriptures which 
before were only mystery. Jesus said, " There 
is nothing covered that shall not be revealed : 
and hid that shall not be known." The knowl- 
edge of the divine or Christ is revealed only so 
far as the Christ or psychic life develops in the 
individual. 

The reader will see that the conviction of a fact 
and the acceptance of a theory concerning it so 
frequently run together in the human mind, that 
the former is hard to accrue without the latter. 



88 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

Where the fact can find no lodgement under one 
of the old conceptions, a new conception or 
generalization must usually be formed before the 
fact can be fully recognized as such; and hence in 
part it comes about that strong testimony is 
neglected or rejected because there is no clear 
and complete classification into which the vouched- 
for facts appear to fall. It is, indeed, I venture to 
think, highly probable that before many years have 
passed the general theory of the Christ prin- 
ciple, or Christ theory, will be widely acknowl- 
edged by the scientific world. But even thus 
large though the step may be, we are only at the 
beginning of our investigation of psychic evolu- 
tion. Evolution in the spiritual universe or 
psychical scale of being is probably wider in its 
application than evolution in the physical uni- 
verse. Evolution has already ushered in or in- 
augurated the new dispensation in the material 
world. It remains for psychic evolution to usher 
in the new dispensation in the spiritual or reli- 
gious world. Those men who take their instruction 
from the authority of books, and not from their 
own spiritual experience, are as much below the 
condition of ignorant men as men endued with 
true science or spiritual sight ^re above it. 

The great problem of the nineteenth century is 
to know how to make a right intellectual use of 
divine energy when it comes to spirit birth and 
development in ourselves. Watt did not invent 



THE CHRIST THEORY, 89 

steam ; he invented a means by which the power 
of steam might be controlled for the benefit of 
man. The Christ theory does not claim to have 
invented divine energy or spirit : its only claim is 
that of discovery, and its only object is to open 
the way by which the present power of divine 
energy may be utilized for the development of 
man's higher nature ; in a word, to make the force 
or divine energy which we find developing in our- 
selves practical. To do this we must first know 
what it zs, and from whence it comes. The spirit- 
ual development which I find in myself, giving me 
clearer and more seer-like visions, glimpses of 
nobler truths, impelling me to make those truths 
known to the world, even at the cost of sneers, 
scorn, and ridicule, — this spirit which I find in 
myself in the olden time the prophets would have 
denominated " the Lord ; " in the time of the 
apostles they would have called it the Holy Ghost, 
or Holy Spirit, for the want of a, clearer knowl- 
edge. Now I call it or look upon it as the devel- 
opment of the human ego along the line of psychic 
evolution. Why, you will say, if psychic evolu- 
tion and the Christ theory are to be accepted, it 
will take the operation of the divine in man out 
of the hands of the Holy Spirit and put it into the 
keeping of a law. This kind of objection is noth- 
ing new ; and it will not be directed to psychic 
evolution and the Christ theory for the first time. 
Objections of a similar nature have been hurled at 



90 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

every new theory that has marked the advance 
of the intellectual and spiritual life of the rac«. 

When the human ego has come to spirit life it 
becomes the divine ego, or, as Paul expressed it, 
'' mortality has put on immortality." This expres- 
sion of Paul's has led many to believe that the 
mortal body was to be changed into an immortal 
body. 

In the developed divine ego we have the com- 
plete or divine man. Is it not better to have the 
present help within ourselves, than to depend 
upon the aid of the Holy Spirit outside ourselves 
in time of need ? Dogmatic teaching has made it 
appear that the spirit was a gracious influence sent 
occasionally from a distant God, in answer to 
earnest importunity, but has failed to recognize 
that it is the developed ego or soul within ourselves, 
and that it is a " teacher." If a divine man or 
developed soul is the goal of psychic evolution, it 
is all to be explained from individual experience. 

My concept of the Christ in nature is as much a 
fact as the sun, although it may chance that no one 
has seen it before me. I may err in the expression 
or theory, but I know that these things are so, like 
day and night, not to be disputed. 

Thus all concentrates in the individual soul. 
Let us not rove ; let us sit at home with the cause. 
Let us stun and astonish the intruding rabble of 
men and books and institutions, by a simple dec- 
laration of the divine fact. Bid them take the 



THE CHRIST THEORY. 91 

shoes from off their feet, for God is here within. 
And as the world gets wiser it will use the light 
of divine energy in the individual in guiding and 
shaping the lower forces now at work so as to 
determine a better and higher future for man. 



92 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE CHRIST DISPENSATION. 

The third law of evolution is that called the 
law of cyclical movement. In other words, al- 
though the evolutionary movement has ever been 
onward and upward, yet it has not travelled at a 
uniform rate in the whole, much less in the parts, 
but it has moved in successive cycles. The tide of 
psychic evolution has risen ever higher and 
higher, without ebb, but it nevertheless came in 
successive waves, each higher than the preceding 
and overborne by the succeeding. These suc- 
cessive waves or cycles of higher and higher 
psychical elevation in the scale of being may be 
represented by spirit in embryo, spirit in a pro- 
gressive stage, and spirit come to birth. In this 
we are considering the progress of the whole, as 
in the preceding chapters we have illustrated 
spirit come to birth in special individuals, in the 
embryonic and progressive periods. 

Of these successive cycles or waves two have 
already passed, and we are entering the third 
cycle. Corresponding to these three cycles are 
three epochs or dispensations, two of which, the 



THE CHRIST DISPENSATION. 93 

Judaic and Christian, are already past, so to speak, 
and the thirds the Christ dispensation, is about to 
begin. The Judaic corresponds to spirit in em- 
bryo; the Christian to spirit in a quickened or 
progressive stage, and the Christ dispensation to 
spirit come to birth. 

The first corresponds to that of the Old Testa- 
ment, or the reign of the Father, the spirit wor- 
shipped as God ; the second that of the New 
Testament, or spirit worshipped as the Son or God- 
man, the reign of the Son ; and the thirds the 
Christ dispensation, or reign of the Holy Spirit, is 
the spirit or Christ come to birth in the individual^ 
what Jesus demoninated as the Son of man's day. 
In that day, when the Son of man, or the Christ, 
shall be revealed or come to birth in the individual ; 
God or spirit manifest in the flesh, in the indi- 
vidual. 

In the three dispensations we have delineated 
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in one ; and we 
find that to be substantially the same as divine 
energy or Christ principle, without which was not 
anything made that was made. 

We must leave to believers and those in whom 
spirit has not yet come to birth, the historic Christ 
and the letter of the New Testament ; but to those 
in whom spirit has come to birth belongs the 
eternal gospel, the gospel of the spirit and unfold- 
ing of the Christ. They in whom spirit has come 
to birth no longer look upon Jesus as the God- 



94 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

man, but as an elder brother ; the Christ in them 
being a development of the same Christ principle 
as the Christ in Jesus, differing only in degree. 

They in whom spirit has come to birth belong to 
the Christ dipensation. Each dispensation corre- 
sponding to the cyclical movement, is higher than 
the preceding and overborne by the succeeding. 
It follows, therefore, that the third or Christ dis- 
pensation will eventually take the place of the 
Christian, as the Christian succeeded the Judaic, 
not because they are false, but because they are 
true as far as they go. They know in part and 
prophesy in part ; but when that which is perfect 
or complete is come, then that which is in part 
shall be done away. 

When the Christ dispensation is fully inaugu- 
rated, the old or traditional Christian dispensa- 
tion will pass away. Jesus said that the new wine 
of the second dispensation could not be put into 
the old Judaic bottles, neither can the new wine 
or Christ dispensation be put into the traditional 
Christian bottles. 

The Christ dispensation is thoroughly Christian. 
How can it be otherwise when it is a completed 
development of the Christ principle, whereas the 
second was only a partial development ? 

Defining, then, the divinity of Jesus to consist in 
a perfect or completed evolution of the Christ 
principle or divine energy, hence a perfect union 
between the spirit in Jesus and the divine spirit, 



THE CHRIST DISPENSATION. % 

we base this conclusion upon three great facts, 
yiz. : First, the Christ principle or spirit of every 
human being is ultimately derived from God, is 
an effluence from the Father of spirits, and so 
the spirit or Christ principle in Jesus came from 
God, and developed into a spirit organism, a Christ 
or Son of man, and differs from the ordinary spirit 
in man only in the degree of perfection. Hence 
when the spirit or Christ principle develops in the 
individual into a spirit organism, a Christ or Son of 
man, it differs from the Christ or Son of man in 
Jesus only in degree. 

Second, the doctrine of evolution would lead us 
to believe that the process of psychical develop- 
ment which began many ages ago would culminate^ 
first., in some individual, and then in all other 
individuals. And when in course of time it had 
culminated in a great many individuals it would 
naturally bring about a new order or dispensation. 

Third, we find ample reliable evidence to prove 
that in Jesus this goal of the evolutionary move- 
ment was realized, and therefore we conclude that 
when spirit comes to birth in the individual the 
evolutionary movement will be realized again in 
each individual, though not in the same degree. 
When spirit comes to birth in us and develops to 
the same degree as it did in Moses and the prophets 
in the first dispensation, and Jesus and the apostles 
iu the second, then shall we meet these developed 
spirits as water with water, for the Christ is 



96 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

developed in us and we are on the psychic 
plane. 

Those in whom spirit comes to birth have a 
special work to do. Jesus proclaimed the spiritual 
truths of the second dispensation. He treated 
popular religious terms as only the symbols of a 
false creed can be effectually treated. He rescued 
them for the service of the new and true. He 
took from their future and remote, in order to give 
them a present and immediate force and aspect. 

Although Jesus inaugurated the second dispensa- 
tion, he left it entangled in the meshes of Judaism. 
And it was through the special development of the 
Christ in Paul that Paul was enabled to withstand 
the Judaic Christians and thus liberate Christianity 
from the entanglement of Judaism, viz., circum- 
cision and the Jewish cultus. 

Through the cyclical movement of psychic evolu- 
tion the time has come when the third or Christ dis- 
pensation must be liberated from its entanglement 
with Christian traditionalism. This can be done in 
a great measure by rescuing the popular religious 
terms for the service of the new and true. Such 
terms as conversion and salvation must have a 
fixed meaning. The only money of God is God. 
He pays never with anything less or anything 
more. Thus we need to fix the value of our reli- 
gious terms. Commerce or business relations could 
not be carried on if our currency had not a fixed 
meaning or value ; neither can our religious rela- 



THE CHRIST DISPENSATION. 97 

tions and development be carried to any degree 
of perfection without a fixed meaning to religious 
terms. 

Rites and ceremonies of worship have no place in 
the Christ dispensation ; they have had their day. 
The Christ dispensation ushers in the Son of man's 
day when the whole artillery or system of divine 
truths, so to speak, is to be turned upon the devel- 
opment of the Christ in the individual, and not 
used in worshipping an imaginary God, or worship- 
ping the Christ in one individual, viz., Jesus. 

In the new heavens and the new earth, the 
Christ dispensation, Jesus occupies the place of 
the most brilliant planet, while Moses and the 
prophets, Paul and the lesser lights, occupy second- 
ary places, though the highest place is open to 
the humblest aspirant seeking endless life through 
spirit coming to birth in his own soul and develop- 
ing into a spirit organism, a divine life, a Christ or 
Son of man. " Let this mind be in you, which was 
also in Jesus : who, being in the form of God, 
thought it not robbery to be equal with God." 

Again, the law of cyclical movement is equally 
conspicuous in psychic development. Religion 
everywhere advances not uniformly but by succes- 
sive waves, each higher than the last ; each urged 
by a new and higher psychic development, and em- 
bodying a new and higher phase of religion. 

Again, as each phase declines, its characteristic 
spiritual force is not lost, but becomes incorporated 



98 



PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 



into the next phase as a subordinate principle; 
thus psychic development as a whole becomes not 
only higher and higher, but also more and more 
complex in the mutual relations of its interacting 
forces. 

The whole process and its result are roughly rep- 
resented in the accompanying diagram. 



X~7 




t4<^" 




/^ 





Fig. Ij in which A B represents the course of psychic development, and 
the curve the rise, culmination, and decline of the different dispensations. 



PART II. 

PSYCHIC EVOLUTION AND MATERIAL 
EVOLUTION. 



CHAPTER I. 

A SKETCH OF THE GENESIS OF THE THEORY OF 
EVOLUTION. 

In order to clear up the conception of evolution, 
it is necessary to give a brief history of the idea, 
and especially to explain the relation of Louis 
Agassiz to that theorj'-. This is the more neces- 
sary because there is a deep and wide-spread 
misunderstanding on this subject, and thus scant 
justice has been done our great naturalist, especially 
by the English and Germans ; and also because 
this relation is an admirable illustration of an 
important principle in scientific philosophy. 

Like all great ideas, we find the first germs of 
this in Greek philosophy, in the cosmic specula- 
tions of Thales and Pythagoras. Next (about 100 
B.C.) we find it more clearly expressed by the 
Roman thinker Lucretius in his great philosophic 
poem entitled " De Rerum Natura." After a dor- 
mancy of nearly eighteen centuries, it next 
emerges with still more clearness in the theologi- 
cal speculations of Swedenborg and the philosophi- 
cal speculations of Kant. All these we pass over 
with bare mention because these thinkers approached 

101 



102 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

the subject from the philosophic rather than the 
scientific side, in the metaphysical rather than in 
the scientific spirit. 

The first serious attempt at scientific presenta- 
tion of the subject was by the celebrated naturalist 
Lamarck, in a work entitled ^' Philosophic Zoolo- 
gique," published in 1809. It is not necessary, 
in this rapid sketch, to give a full account of 
Lamarck's views. Suffice it to say that the essen- 
tial idea of evolution, viz., the indefinite varia- 
bility and the derivative origin of species, was 
insisted on with great learning and skill, and 
illustrated by many examples. With Lamarck, 
the factors of evolution oi' causes of change of 
organic forms were, (1) Modification of organs in 
function, and therefore in structure, by a changing 
environment, external factor ; and (2) Modification 
of organs by use and disuse, internal factor. In both 
cases the modifications are inherited and increased 
from generation to generation, without limit. This 
second factor seems to have taken, in the mind of 
Lamarck, the somewhat vague and transcendental 
form of aspiration or upward striving of the animal 
toward higher conditions. These are acknowledged 
to-day as true factors of evolution ; but the dis- 
tinctively Darwinian factor, viz., " divergent varia- 
tion and natural selection," was not then thought 
of. The publication of Lamarck's views produced 
a powerful impression, but only for a little while. 
Pierced by the shafts of ridicule shot by nimble 



GENESIS OF THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 103 

wits of Paris, and crushed beneath the heavy 
weight of the authority of Cuvier, the greatest 
naturalist and comparative anatomist of that or 
perhaps of any time, it fell almost still-born. I 
believe it was best that it should thus perish. Its 
birth was premature; it was not fit to live. The 
world was not yet prepared for a true scientific 
theory. Nevertheless, the work was not without 
its effect upon some of the most advanced thinkers 
of that time ; upon Saint-Hilaire and Comte in 
France, and upon Goethe and Oken in Germany. 
It was good seed sown, and destined to spring up 
and bear fruit in suitable environment, but not 
yet. 

The next attempt worthy of attention in this 
rapid sketch is that of Robert Chambers, in a 
little volume entitled ''Vestiges of a Natural His- 
tory of Creation," published in 1844. It was 
essentially a repj-oduction of Lamarck's views in a 
more popular form. It was not a truly scientific 
work, nor written by a scientific man. It was 
rather an appeal from the too technical court of 
science to the supposed wider and more unpreju- 
diced court of popular intelligence. It was, there- 
fore, far more eloquent than accurate ; far more 
specious than profound. It was, indeed, full of 
false facts and inconsequent reasonings. Never- 
theless, it produced a very strong impression on 
the thinking, popular mind. But it also quickly 
fell, pierced by keen shafts of ridicule, and crushed 



104 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

beneath the heavy weight of the authority of all 
the most prominent naturalists of that time, with 
Agassiz at their head. The question for the time 
seemed closed. I believe, again, it was best so, 
for the time was not yet fully ripe. 

I know full well that many think with Haeckel 
that biology was kept back half a century by the 
baneful authority of Cuvier and Agassiz ; but I 
cannot think so. The hypothesis was contrary to 
the facts of science as then Jcnotvn and understood. 
It was conceived in the spirit of baseless specula- 
tion rather than of cautious induction ; of skilful 
elaboration rather than of earnest truth seeking. 
Its general acceptance would have debauched the 
true spirit of science. I repeat it : the time was 
not yet ripe for a scientific theory. The ground 
must first be cleared and a solid foundation built ; 
an insuperable obstacle to hearty rational acceptance 
must first be removed, and an inductive basis must 
be laid. 

The obstacle removed. — The obstacle in the way 
of the acceptance of the derivative origin of species 
was the then prevalent notion concerning the nature 
of life. We must briefly sketch the change which 
has taken place in the last forty years in our ideas 
on this subject. 

Until about forty years ago the different forces 
of nature, such as gravity, electricity, magnetism, 
light, heat, chemical affinity, etc., were supposed to 
be entirely distinct. The realm of nature was 



GENESIS OF THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 10b 

divided up into a number of distinct and independ- 
ent principalities, each subject to its own sovereign 
force, and ruled by its own petty laws. About 
that time it began to be evident, and is now uni- 
versally acknowledged, that all these forces are 
but different forms of one universal^ omnipresent 
energy.) and are transmutable into one another 
back and forth without loss. This is the doc- 
trine of correlation of forces and conservation of 
energy, one of the grandest ideas of modern times. 
But 07ie force seemed still to be an exception. Life- 
force was still believed to be a peculiar, mysterious 
principle or entity^ standing above other forces and 
subordinating them ; not correlated with, not trans- 
mutable into, nor derivable from, other and lower 
forces, and therefore in some sense supernatural. 
Now, if this be true of \Win.g forces^ it is perfectly 
natural, yea, almost necessary, to believe that living 
forms are wholly different from other forms in their 
origin. New forms of dead matter may be derived, 
but new living forms are underived. Other new 
forms come by natural process, new organic forms 
by supernatural process. The conclusion was al- 
most unavoidable. But soon vital force also yielded 
to the general law of correlation of natural forces. 
Vital forces are also transmutable into and deriv- 
able from physical and chemical forces. Sun force, 
falling on the green leaves of plants, is absorbed 
and converted into vital force, disappears as light 
to reappear as life. The amount of life-force gen- 



106 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

erated is measured by the amount of light extin- 
guished. The same is true of animal life. As in 
the steam-engine the locomotive energy is derived 
from the fuel consumed and measured by its amount, 
so in the animal body the animal heat and animal 
force are derived from and measured by the food 
and tissue consumed by combustion. Thus vital 
force may be regarded as so much force withdrawn 
from the general fund of chemical and physical 
forces to be again refunded without loss at death. 
This obstacle is, therefore, now removed. If vital 
force falls in the same category as other natural 
forces, there is no reason why living forms should 
not fall into the same category in this regard as 
other natural forms. If new forms of dead matter 
are derived from old forms by modification, accord- 
ing to physical laws, there is no reason why new 
living forms should not also be derived from old 
forms by modification according to physiological 
laws. Thus, at last, the obstacle was removed ; the 
ground was cleared. 

The basis laid. — But science is not content with 
removal of a priori objections. She must also have 
positive proofs. The ground must not only be 
cleared, but a true inductive basis of facts, and 
especially of laws and methods, must be laid. This 
was the life-work of Agassiz. Yes, as strange as it 
may seem to some, it is nevertheless true that the 
whole inductive basis upon which was afterward 
built the modern theory of evolution was laid by 



GENESIS OF THEORY OF EVOLUTION, 107 

Agassiz, although he himself persistently refused 
to build upon it any really scientific superstructure. 
It is plain, then, that all attempts at building pre- 
vious to Agassiz's work must, of necessit}^, have 
resulted in an unsubstantial structure, an edifice 
built on sand, which could not and ought not to 
stand. I must stop here in order to explain some- 
what fully this important point, and thus to give 
due credit to the work of Agassiz. 

The title of any scientist to greatness must be 
determined, not so much by the multitude of new 
facts he has discovered as by the new laws he has 
established, and especially the new methods he has 
inaugurated or perfected. Now, I think it can be 
shown that to Agassiz more than to any other man 
is due the credit of having estahlished the laws of 
succession of living forms in the geological history 
of the earth, laws upon which must rest any true 
theory of evolution. Also, that to him more than 
to any other man is due the credit of having per- 
fected the method (method of comparison) by the 
use of which alone biological science has advanced 
so rapidly in modern times. This is high praise. 
I wish to justify it. I begin with the method. 

Scientific methods bear the same relation to in- 
tellectual progress that tools, instruments, machines, 
mechanical contrivances of all sorts, bear to mate- 
rial progress. They are intellectual contrivances^ 
indirect ways of accomplishing results far too hard 
for bare-handed, unaided intellectual strength. As 



108 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

the civilized man has little or no advantage over the 
savage in bare-handed strength of muscle, and 
the enormous superiority of the former in accom- 
plishing material results is due wholly to the use 
of mechanical contrivances or machines, even so, 
in the higher sphere of intellect, the scientist 
makes no pretension to the possession of greater 
unaided intellectual strength than belongs to the 
uncultivated man, or even perhaps to the savage. 
The amazing intellectual results achieved by sci- 
ence are due wholly to the use of intellectual con- 
trivances or scientific methods. As in the lower 
sphere of material progress the greatest benefac- 
tors of the race are the inventors or perfecters of 
new mechanical contrivances or machines^ so also 
in the higher sphere of intellectual progress the 
greatest benefactors of the race are the inventors 
or perfecters of new intellectual contrivances or 
methods of research. 

To illustrate the power of methods, and the 
necessity of their use, take the case of the method 
of notation^ so characteristic of mathematics, and 
take it even in its simplest and most familiar 
form : nine numeral figures, having each a value 
of its own, and another dependent upon its posi- 
tion ; a few letters, a and 5, and x and y^ connected 
by symbols, + and — and = ; that is all. And 
yet, by the use of this simple contrivance, the 
dullest schoolboy accomplishes intellectual results 
which would defy the utmost efforts of the unaided 



GENESIS OF THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 109 

strength of the greatest genius. And this is only 
the simplest tool-form of this method. Think of 
the results accomplished by the use of the more 
complex machinery of the higher mathematics ! 

Take next the method of experiment so char- 
acteristic of physics and chemistry. The phe- 
nomena of the external world are far too complex 
and far too much affected by disturbing forces and 
modifying conditions to be understood at once by 
bare, unaided, intellectual insight. They must 
first be simplified. The physicist, therefore, con- 
trives artificial phenomena under ideal conditions. 
He removes one complicated condition after 
another, one disturbing cause and then another 
watching meanwhile the result, until, finally, the 
necessary condition and the true cause are dis- 
covered. On this method rests the whole fabric 
of the physical and chemical sciences. 

But when we rise still higher, viz., into the plane 
of life, the phenomena of nature become still more 
complex and difficult to understand directly ; and 
yet just here, where we are the most powerless 
without some method, our method of experiment 
almost wholly fails us. The phenomena of life are 
not only far more complex than those of dead 
matter, but the conditions of life are so nicely 
adjusted, equilibrium of forces so delicately bal- 
anced, that, when we attempt to introduce our 
clumsy hands in the way of experiment, we are in 
danger of overthrowing the equilibrium, of de- 



110 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

stroying the conditions of the experiment, viz., 
life ; and then the whole problem falls immediately 
into the domain of chemistry. What shall we do ? 
In this dilemma we find that nature herself has 
already prepared for us, ready to hand, an elaborate 
series of simplified conditions equivalent to ex- 
periment. The phenomena of life are, indeed, far 
too complex to be at once understood, the problem 
of life too hard to be solved, in the higher animals ; 
but, as we go down the animal scale, complicating 
conditions are removed one by one, the phenomena 
of life become simpler and simpler, until in the 
lowest microscopic cell or spherule of living proto- 
plasm we finally reach the simplest possible ex- 
pression of life. The equation of life is reduced 
to its simplest terms, and now, if ever, we begin 
to understand the true value of the unknown 
quantity. This is the natural history series, or 
Taxonomic series, already spoken of. Again, nature 
has prepared, and is now preparing daily before 
our eyes, another series of gradually simplified 
conditions. Commencing with the mature condi- 
tion of one of the higher animals, for example, 
man, and going backward along the line of indi- 
vidual history through the stages of infant, embryo, 
Qggi and germ, we find again the phenomena of life 
becoming simpler and simpler, until we again 
reach the simplest conceivable condition in the 
single microscopic cell or spherule of living proto- 
plasm. This, as already explained, is the embry- 



GENESIS OF THEORY OF EVOLUTION. Ill 

onic or Ontogenic series. Again, that there be no 
excuse for man's ignorance of the laws of life, 
nature has prepared still another series ; and this 
the greatest of all, for it is the cause of both the 
others. Commencing with the plants and animals 
of the present, and going back along the track of 
geological times, through cenozoic, mesozoic, pal- 
seozoic, eozoic, to the very dawn of life, the first 
syllable of recorded time, and we find again a 
series of organic forms growing simpler and sim- 
pler, until, if we could find the very first, v/e 
would undoubtedly again reach the simplest con- 
dition in the lowest conceivable forms of life. 
This, as we have already seen, is the geologic or 
evolution, or Phylogenic series. We have already 
explained these three series, only in this connec- 
tion it suits our purpose to take the terms back- 
ward. 

Now, it is by comparison of the terms of each of 
these series going up and down, and watching the 
first appearance, the growth, and the perfecting of 
tissues, organs, functions, and by the comparison 
of the three series with one another term by term 
— I say it is wholly by comparison of this kind 
that biology has in recent times become a true in- 
ductive science. This is the " method of compar- 
ison.''^ It is the great method of research in all 
those departments which cannot be readily man- 
aged by the method of experiment. It has already 
regenerated biology, and is now applied with like 



112 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

success in sociology under the name of historic 
method. Yes ; anatomy became scientific only 
through comparative anatomy ; physiology through 
comparative physiology, and embryology through 
comparative embryology. May we not add, soci- 
ology will become truly scientific only through 
comparative sociology, and psychology through 
comparative psychology ? 

Now, while it is true that this method, like 
all other methods, has been used, from the earliest 
dawn of thought, in a loose and imperfect way, 
yet it is only in very recent times that it has been 
organized, systematized, perfected as a true scien- 
tific method, as a great instrument of research ; 
and the prodigious recent advance of biology is 
due wholly to this cause. Now, among the great 
leaders of this modern movement, Agassiz un- 
doubtedly stands in the very first rank. I must 
try to make this point plain, for it is by no means 
generally understood. 

Cuvier is acknowledged to be the great founder 
of comparative anatomy. He it was that first 
perfected the method of comparison, but compari- 
son only in one series, the taxonomie. Yon Baer 
and Agassiz added to this, comparison in the onto- 
genic series also, and comparison of these two series 
with each other, and therefore the application 
of embryology to the classification of animals. If 
Yon Baer was the first announcer, Agassiz was the 
first great practical worker by this method. Last 



GENESIS OF THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 113 

and most important of all, in its relation to evolu- 
tion, Agassiz added comparison in the geologic or 
phylogenic series. The one grand idea underlying 
Agassiz's whole life-work was the essential iden- 
tity of the three series, and therefore the light 
which they must shed on one another. The two 
guiding and animating principles of his scientific 
work were : 1, that the embryonic development 
of one of the higher representatives of any group 
repeated in a general way the terms of the taxo- 
nomic series in the same group, and therefore that 
embryology furnished the key to a true classifica- 
tion ; and 2, that the succession of forms and struc- 
ture in geological times in any group is similar 
to the succession of forms and structure in the de- 
velopment of the individual in the same group, 
and thus that embryology furnishes also the key 
to geological succession. In other words, during 
his whole life Agassiz insisted that the laws of 
embryonic development (ontogeny) are also the 
laws of geological succession (phylogeny). Surely 
this is the foundation, the only solid foundation, of 
a true theory of evolution. It is true that Agassiz, 
holding as he did the doctrine of permanency of 
specific types, and therefore rejecting the doctrine 
of the derivative origin of species, did not admit 
the causal or natural relation of phylogenic succes- 
sion to embryonic succession and taxonomic order 
as we now believe it. It is true that for him the 
relation between the three series was an intellect- 



114 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

ual not a physical one, consisted in the preordained 
plans of the Creator, and not in any genetic con- 
nection or inherited property. But evidently the 
first and greatest step was the discovery of the 
relation itself, however accounted for. The rest 
was sure to follow. 

But more : not only did Agassiz establish the 
essential identity of the geologic and embryonic 
succession, the general similarity of the two series, 
phylogenic aud ontogenic, but he has also an- 
nounced and enforced all the formal laws of geo- 
logic succession (i.e.^ of evolution) as we know 
them. These, as already stated and illustrated, 
are the laws of differentiation, the law of progress 
of the whole, and the law of cyclical movement, 
although he did not formulate them in these words. 
No true inductive evidence of evolution was possi- 
ble without the knowledge of these laws, and for 
this knowledge we are mainly indebted to Agassiz. 
He well knew also that they were the laws of em- 
bryonic development and therefore of evolution ; 
but he avoided the word evolution, as implying 
the derivative origin of species, and used instead 
the word development^ though it is hard to see 
in what the words differ. Thus it is evident that 
Agassiz laid the whole foundation of evolution 
solid and broad, but refused to build any scientific 
structure on it ; he refused to recognize the legiti- 
mate, the scientifically necessary outcome of his 
own work. Nevertheless, without his work a 



GENESIS OF THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 115 

scientific theory of evolution would have been im- 
possible. Without Agassiz (or his equivalent) 
there would have been no Darwin. 

There is something to us supremely grand in 
this refusal of Agassiz to accept the theory of evo- 
lution. The opportunity to become the leader of 
modern thought, the foremost man of the century, 
was in his hands, and he refused, because his reli- 
gion, or, perhaps better, his philosophic intuitions, 
forbade. To Agassiz, and, indeed, to all men of 
that time, to many, alas, even now, evolution is 
materialism. But materialism is atheism. Will 
some one say the genuine truth-seeker follows 
where she seems to lead, whatever be the conse- 
quences f Yes ; whatever be the consequences to 
one's self, to one's opinions, prejudices, theories, 
philosophies, but not to still more certain truth. 
Now, to Agassiz, as to all genuine thinkers, the ex- 
istence of God, like our own existence, is more cer- 
tain than any scientific theory, than anything can 
possibly be made by proof. From his standpoint, 
therefore, he was right in rejecting evolution as con- 
flicting with still more certain truth. The mistake 
which he made was in imagining that there was any 
such conflict at all. But this was the universal mis- 
take of the age. A lesser man would have seen less 
clearly the higher truth and accepted the lower. 
A greater man would have risen above the age, and 
seen that there was no conflict, and so accepted both. 
All thinking men are coming to this conclusion 



116 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

now, but none had done so then. Now, then, at 
last, the obstacle of supernaturalism in the realm 
of nature having been removed by the establish- 
ment of the doctrine of correlation of natural 
forces, and the extension of this doctrine to em- 
brace also life-force ; and now also a broad and 
firm basis of carefully observed facts and well-estab- 
lished laws of succession of organic forms having 
been laid by Agassiz, when again, for the third 
time, the doctrine of origin of species " by deriva- 
tion with modifications " was brought forward by 
Darwin in a far more perfect form, with more abun- 
dant illustrative materials, and with a new and 
most potent factor of modification, viz., divergent 
variations and natural selection — it found the sci- 
entific world already fully prepared and anxiously 
waiting. I say anxiously waiting, for the supposed 
supernatural origin of species had been the one 
exception to the otherwise universal law of cause 
and effect, or the law of continuity. It was there- 
fore in open contradiction to the whole drift of 
scientific thought for five hundred years. Is it any 
wonder, then, that the derivative origin of species 
was welcomed with joy by the scientific world? 
For five hundred years scientific thought, like 
a rising tide which knows no ebb, had tended 
thitherward with ever-increasing pressure, but 
kept back by the one supposed fact of the super- 
natural origin of species. Darwin lifted the gate, 



GENESIS OF THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 117 

and the in-rushing tide flooded the whole domain of 
thought. 

What, then, is the place of Agassiz in biological 
science ? What is the relation of Agassiz to Darwin 
— of Agassizian development to Darwinian evolu- 
tion ? I answer, it is the relation of formal science 
to physical or causal science. Agassiz advanced 
biology to the formal stage ; Darwin carried it for- 
ward, to some extent at least, to the physical stage. 
All true inductive sciences in their complete de- 
velopment pass through these two stages. Science 
in the one stage treats of the laws of phenomena ; 
in the other of the causes or explanation of these 
laws. The former must precede the latter and 
form its foundation ; the latter must follow the 
former and constitute its completion. The change 
from the one to the other is always attended with 
prodigious impulse to science. 

To illustrate : until Kepler, astronomy was little 
more than an accumulation of disconnected facts 
concerning celestial motions — abundant materials, 
but no science ; piles of brick and stone, but no 
building. Kepler reduced this chaos to beautiful 
order and musical harmony by the discovery of the 
three great laws which bear his name, and there- 
fore he has been justly called the legislator of the 
heavens, the lawgiver of space. But had he been 
asked the cause of these beautiful laws, he could 
only have answered, "The first cause^ the direct 



118 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

will of the Deity." A good answer and a true, 
but not scientific, because it places the question 
beyond the domain of science, which deals only 
with second or physical cause. But Newton comes 
forward and gives a physical cause. He shows that 
all these beautiful laws are the necessary result of 
gravitation ; and thus astronomy becomes a physi- 
cal science. So, until Agassiz, the facts of geo- 
logical succession of organic forms were in a state 
of lawless confusion. Agassiz, by establishing the 
three great laws of succession which ought to bear 
his name, reduced this chaos to order and beauty, 
and therefore he might justly be called the legisla- 
tor of geological history, the lawgiver of time. But 
when asked the cause of these laws, he could only 
answer, and did indeed ansv/er, " The plans of the 
Creator." A noble answer and true, but not scien- 
tific. Darwin now comes forward and gives, partly 
at least, the cause of these laws. He shows that 
all these beautiful laws are explained by the 
doctrine of " origin of species by derivation with 
modification ; " that these laws are not ultimate, 
but derivative from more fundamental laws of life ; 
and thus biology is advanced one step, at least, 
towards the causal stage. Newton and Darwin 
substituted second causes for first causes, natu- 
ral for supernatural. They, each in his own depart- 
ment, broke the bonds of supernaturalism in the 
domain of nature. 



Oenesis of theory of evolution. 119 

One more important reflection. There are two, 
and only two, fundamental conditions of material 
existence, space and time. There are, therefore, two, 
and only two, cosmoses, space cosmos and time cos- 
mos. These have been redeemed from confusion 
and reduced to law and order and beauty, changed 
from chaos to cosmos by science. For this result 
we are chiefly indebted in the one case to Kepler 
and Newton, in the other to Agassiz and Darwin. 
The universal law in the one cosmos is the laiv of 
gravitation ; in the other the law of evolution. 
Traced by analysis to its deepest roots of philo- 
sophic truth, the one law may be called the divine 
mode of sustentation ; the other, the divine process 
of creation. 

Or again: we have all heard of the "music of 
the spheres," a beautiful and significant name used 
by the old thinkers for the divine order of the 
universe — a music heard not by human ear, but 
only by the attentive human spirit. Harmonic re- 
lation apprehended by reason we call law^ and its 
embodiment art, music. Now, in music there are 
two kinds of harmony, simultaneous and consecu- 
tive, chordal harmony and melody. These must 
be combined to produce the grandest effect. So 
in cosmic order, too, there are two kinds of har- 
monic relation, the coexistent in space and the con- 
secutive in time. The law of gravitation expresses 
the universal harmonic inter-relations of objects co- 



120 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

existent in space ; the law of evolution, the univer- 
sal harmonic relation of forms successive in time. 
Of the divine spheral music, the one is the chordal 
harmony, the other the consecutive harmony or 
melody. Combined they form the divine chorus 
which " the morning stars sang together." ^ 

1 Le Conte, "Relation of Agassiz to Evolution." 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE, 121 



CHAPTER II. 

EVOLUTION OF FORCE, OR PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 
AND MATERIAL EVOLUTION. 

Every one is familiar with the main facts con- 
nected with the development of an Qgg. We all 
know that it begins as a microscopic germ-cell, then 
grows into an Qgg^ then organizes into a chick, and 
finally grows into a cock ; and that the whole pro- 
cess follows some general, well-recognized law. 
Now this process is evolution. It is more ; it is 
the type of all evolution. It is that from which we 
get our idea of evolution, and without which there 
could be no such word. Whenever and wherever 
we find a process of change more or less resembling 
this, and following laws similar to those determin- 
ing the development of an Qgg^ we call it evo- 
lution. 

Evolution as a process is not confined to one 
thing, the Qgg^ nor to one substance, matter; nor 
as a doctrine is it confined to one department of 
science, biology. The process pervades the whole 
universe and psychic kingdom, z.e., kingdom of 
God ; and the doctrine concerns alike every depart- 
ment of science and religion — yea, every depart- 



122 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

ment of human thought. It is literally one-half of 
all science and one-half of all religion. Therefore, 
its truth or falseness, its acceptance or rejection, is 
no trifling matter, affecting only one small corner 
of the thought-realm. On the contrar}^, it affects 
profoundly the foundation of philosophy and reli- 
gion, and therefore the whole domain of thought. 
It determines the whole attitude of the mind to- 
ward nature and God. What is said above in 
regard to material evolution is also true of the 
evolution of force or psychic evolution. The idea 
of divine energy as the force or cause of every pro- 
cess of evolution affects profoundly the founda- 
tions of philosophy and Christianity, the whole 
domain of Christian thought, and determines the 
whole attitude of the mind toward Deity hack of 
and in nature. And that is not all : it forms the 
nexus between science and religion. 

We understand, then, that the divine or Christ 
principle in nature is that divine energy or force 
in nature which, when it has accomplished its ev- 
olution, produces the divine or Christ in man. 
There are two poles of existence without the rec- 
ognition of which science is impossible ; they may 
be represented as matter and force^ or matter and 
divine energy. What then i^ force or the universal 
energy of nature ? It is an effluence or creative 
power of deity passing into matter and form, a 
process of divine incarnation, i.e.^ the inherent force, 
divine or Christ principle in nature. The idea of 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 123 

force as divine energy fixed in the mind expands 
by a natural law and blends with our idea of God 
in nature, and prevents us from falling into pan- 
theism. What is spirit? It is the end or goal of 
which the Christ principle in nature is only the 
beginning ; it is this same divine energy, viz., 
Christ principle, or a portion of it, individuated 
more and more until it becomes a separate entity 
— spirit individuality. The Divine Spirit, brood- 
ing upon primal chaos, communicated to it an 
influence, an energy, viz., Christ principle, wMch 
became the force of evolution. Thus observe that 
the Christ principle is back of or prior to evolu- 
tion ; without the Christ principle there could be 
no process of evolution. A fragment of this all- 
pervading Christ principle individuates itself more 
and more until it assumes complete individuality 
or personality ; and then we call it spirit. Thus 
the Christ principle proceeding from the divine 
power and energizing nature struggles on upward 
until it again attains recognition of the source from 
which it proceeded. It attains this recognition in 
a Christ-man, i.e.^ a man in whom the Christ prin- 
ciple has completed its evolution and come to spirit 
birth. 

I have learned to accept the existence of immor- 
tal spirit as a direct revelation from within^ and my 
whole effort has been to reconcile this fact with the 
teaching of nature and Scripture. I have at- 
tempted to explain to myself the relation of the 



124 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

immortal spirit^ or Christ in me^ to the animan or 
human soul, to the anima or soul of animals, the vital 
principle of plants, and the physical and chemical 
forces of nature. It may be that my attempt is 
presumptuous ; it may be that the state of human 
knowledge is not yet ripe for such an attempt ; it 
may be that they will offend the traditional beliefs 
of many : but I cannot mistake the current of my 
thought, nor doubt that it is a new vein of thought 
in relation to religion which must be opened either 
now or shortly, nor doubt the necessity of such an 
attempt. With much hesitation, therefore, I pre- 
sent my thought, hoping the reader will make every 
allowance for unavoidable imperfection. 

It is allowable for science to look upon the divine 
energy or universal energy of nature, the animating 
principle, as force ; but religion must draw nearer. 
It must perceive that force, or the animating prin- 
ciple of nature, is the Christ principle ; and that 
force and matter, i.e., the Christ principle and mat- 
ter, may be said to exist on several distinct planes 
raised one above another. There is a sort of tax- 
onomic scale of force, i.e., divine energy and mat- 
ter. There are, 1, the plane of elements ; 2, the 
plane of chemical compounds ; 3, the plane of vege- 
tal life ; 4, the plane of animal life ; 5, the plane 
of self-conscious or rational life ; and 6, the Christ 
plane, the plane of spirit individuality or spirit con- 
sciousness, conscious of the source from which it 
proceeded. Thus the Christ principle proceeding 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 125 

from the divine person and energizing nature, 
struggles through all the different planes of incar- 
nation upward until it again attains recognition of 
the source from which it proceeded, until it becomes 
at one with the Divine Spirit, until it can look up 
or look within and call the Divine Spirit, ^.e., God, 
its Father. 

It is curious to observe how, when the question 
is concerning a work of nature, we no sooner find 
out how a thing is made than we immediately ex- 
claim, " It is not made at all, it became so of 
itself ! " So long as we knew not how incarnation 
took place we of course concluded that it must be 
by a special act of the Holy Ghost ; but so soon as 
the Christ-principle theory shows how it was prob- 
ably done, ix.^ through the universal law of incar- 
nation, immediately we say we were mistaken ; 
Jesus was not divine at all ; there is no such thing 
as a divine man or Christ-man. But observe, once 
for all, that this conclusion does not follow. Does 
it not seem, then, that to most people God is a 
mere wonder-worker, a chief magician. But the 
mission of science, and the Christ-principle theory 
in particular, is to show us how things are done ; 
that is, that the divine man or Christ-man origi- 
nated by the universal law of incarnation, the 
Christ-man being the completed evolution of the 
Christ principle in nature, and that whenever and 
wherever the Christ principle or a portion of 
divine energy individuates itself until it becomes 



12G PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

a separate entity, completes its evolution, it will 
prodnoe- a Christ-nian,^ o£ which Jesus is the type. 
But Jesus was not the first Christ man. Were not 
Moses and the prophets and Socrates before Jesus ? 
Neither was Jesus the last Christ -man — there 
have been many. Is it a wonder, then, that to 
most persons science, and especially the Christ- 
principle theory, is constantly destroying their 
superstitious illusions ? But if God is an honest 
worker, according to reason, i.e.^ according to law, 
ought not science and the Christ-principle theory 
rather to change gaping wonder into intelligent 
delight, superstition into rational worship, and 
Christianity into a consistent, rational religion, 
and thus forever do away with the traditional 
interpretation of Scripture ? 

Every man is the word made flesh, z.e., incarnate. 
It is comparatively easy from the Christ-principle 
point of view to apprehend the process. '' The 
word was with God and the word was God ; " the 
word was divine energy or force, ^.e., Christ prin- 
ciple. Now, taking force, Christ principle, as the 
psychical tree of life, it branches and rebranches ; 
its lower branches represent sentient life ; the 
next, conscious life ; the next, rational life ; the 
whole tree growing ever higher in its highest 
parts. While the whole tree is the word made 
flesh, only one straight trunk line leads upward 
to the terminal bud, i.e.^ Christ-man. A branch 
once separated must grow its own way if it grow 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 127 

at all. Each individual tree follows tlie same 
necessary law ; only one straight trunk line lead& 
upward to the terminal bud, i.e.^ immortality, spirit 
individuality. 

It is^ easy to see that a clearer knowledge of the 
divinity in man must work an individual revolu- 
tion in his religion. 

That the Christ-principle theory may be adapted 
to the intelligent popular mind it is necessary that 
they should have an adequate knowledge of evolu- 
tion. There is a deep and wide-spread belief in 
the popular mind that there is something excep- 
tional in the doctrine of evolution as regards its 
relation to religious thought and moral conduct. 
The mind must be disburdened of this idea by 
coming in actual contact with ideal evolution. 

We have said that psychic evolution is literally 
one-half of religion, and that evolution constitutes 
one-half of all science ; but the Christ principle is 
the force of evolution of the cosmos, which still 
controls and maintains its beautiful order, and is 
so blended with evolution that we cannot have an 
adequate idea of the Christ principle without evo- 
lution. But if the reader will once for all fix in 
the mind the relation of the Christ principle to 
force, that in science it is called force, in 7'eligion 
it is the Christ principle, then we shall gain, by the 
study of evolution, at the same time, a knowledge 
of science and the underlying necessary law of 
true religion. 



128 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

We have given the definition ; we will now pro- 
ceed with the scope of evolution in the language 
of science. 

Every system of correlated parts may be studied 
from three points of view, which give rise to three 
departments of science, one of which is religion ; 
viz., the Christ principle in nature, or cause of ex- 
istence. One of the others, the greater and more 
complex, is evolution. One concerns the cause., 
which, translated into the language of religion, is 
the Christ principle or divine energy in nature. 
The second concerns changes within the system 
by action and reaction between the parts, produ- 
cing equilibrium and stability ; the third concerns 
the progressive movement of the system as a whole 
to higher and higher conditions, both psychical and 
material — the movement of the point of equilib- 
rium itself, by constant slight disturbance and 
readjustment of parts on a higher plane, with more 
complex inter-relations. The first concerns the 
law of universal incarnation ; the second, the laws 
of sustentation of the system ; the third, the laws 
of evolution. The first concerns the cause of exist- 
ence ; the second concerns things as they are ; the 
third, the process by which they became so. 

Now nature, as a whole, is such a system of cor- 
related parts. Every department and sub-depart- 
ment, whether it be the solar system, or the earth, 
or the organic kingdom, or the spiritual kingdom, 
^.e., kingdom of God, or human society, or the 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 129 

human body, or the human soul, is such a system 
of correlated parts, and is therefore subject to evo- 
lution. We can best make this thought clear by 
example. 

1. Take, then, the human hody. This complex 
and beautiful system of correlated and nicely 
adjusted parts may be studied in a state of matur- 
ity and equilibrium in which all the organs and 
functions by action and reaction co-operate to pro- 
duce perfect stability, health, and physical happi- 
ness. This study is physiology. Or else the same 
may be studied in a state of progressive change. 
Now we perceive that the stability is never perfect; 
the point of equilibrium is ever moving. By the 
ever-changing number and relative power of the 
co-operating parts the equilibrium is ever being 
disturbed, only to be readjusted on a higher plane 
with still more beautiful and complex inter-rela- 
tions. This is growth, development, evolution. 
Its study is called embryology. 

2. Take, now, the human soul. This complex 
and beautiful system of correlated and nicely 
adjusted parts may be studied in a state of matur- 
ity and equilibrium, in which all the functions by 
action and reaction co-operate to produce perfect 
spiritual stability, health, and spiritual happiness. 
Or else the same may be studied in a state of pro- 
gressive change. Now we perceive that the sta- 
bility is never perfect; the point of equilibrium 
is ever moving. By the ever-changing number 



130 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

and relative power of the co-operating parts the 
equilibrium is ever being disturbed, only to be 
readjusted on a higher, viz., Christ plane, with 
still more beautiful and complex inter-relations. 
This is spiritual growth, spiritual development, 
psychic evolution, and the completed process pro- 
duces the Christ-man. Its study may be called 
Christology, or the scientific side of Christianity. 

3. Take another example — the solar system. 
We may study sun, planets, and satellites in their 
mutual actions and reactions, co-operating to pro- 
duce perfect equilibrium, stability, beautiful order, 
and musical harmony. Or we may study the same 
in its origin and progressive change. Now we 
perceive that equilibrium and stability are never 
absolutely perfect, but, on the contrary, there is 
continual disturbance with readjustment on a 
higher plane ; continual introduction of infinites- 
imal discord, only to enhance the grandeur and 
complexity of the harmonic relations. This is the 
nebular hypothesis, the theory of the development 
of the solar system. It is cosmogony ; it is evolu- 
tion. 

4. Again, society may be studied in the mutual 
play of all its social functions so adjusted as to 
produce social equilibrium, happiness, prosperity, 
and good government. This is social statics. 
But equilibrium and stability are never perfect. 
Permanent social equiUbrium would be social 
stagnation and decay. Therefore we must study 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 131 

society also in its onward movement — the equi- 
librium ever disturbed, only to be readjusted on a 
higher plane with more and more complexly inter- 
related parts. This is dynamics — social progress; 
it is evolution. 

5. Again, religion may be studied in the mutual 
play of all its spiritual functions so adjusted as 
to produce spiritual equilibrium, happiness, and 
spiritual prosperity. This is religious statics. 
But spiritual equilibrium and stability are never 
perfect. Permanent spiritual equilibrium would 
be spiritual stagnation and decay. Therefore we 
must study religion also in its onward movement 

— the equilibrium ever disturbed, only to be read- 
justed on a higher plane, the Christ plane, with 
more and more complexly inter-related parts. 
This is religious progress, spiritual development, 
in the individual and in the race, the whole mov- 
ing forward to a higher plane. It is evolution. 

6. Again, the earth as a whole may be studied 
in its present form, and the mutual action of all 
its parts, — lands and seas, mountains and valleys, 
rivers, gulfs, and bays, currents of air and ocean, 

— and the manner in which all these, by action 
and reaction, co-operate to produce climates and 
physical conditions such as we now find them. 
This is physical geography. Or we may study 
the earth in its gradual progress toward its pres- 
ent condition — the changes which have taken 
place in all these parts, and consequent changes 



132 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

in climate : in a word, the gradual process of 
becoming what it now is. This is physical geol- 
ogy ; it is evolution. 

7. Again, we may study the organic hingdom in 
its entirety as we now find it — the mutual rela- 
tion of different classes, orders, genera, and species 
to each other and to external conditions, and the 
action and reaction of these in the struggle for 
life, the geographical distribution of species and 
their relation to climate and other physical con- 
ditions, the whole constituting a complexly ad- 
justed and permanent equilibrium. This is a 
science of great importance, but one not yet dis- 
tinctly conceived, much less named.^ Or we may 
study the same in its gradual progressive approach, 
throughout all geological times, toward the present 
condition of things, by continual changes in the 
parts, and therefore disturbance of equilibrium 
and readjustment on a higher plane with more 
complex inter-relations. This is development of 
the organic kingdom. In the popular mind it is, 
par excellence, evolution. 

8. Lastly, we may study the whole psychical, 
i.e.^ spiritual Jcingdom^ in its entiret}^ as we now 
find it — the mutual relatipn of different psychic 
forms or manifestations to each other and to the 
external and internal conditions, and the action 
and reaction of these in the struggle for immor- 

1 The term Chorology, used by Haeckel, nearly covers the 
ground. 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 133 

tality, the whole constituting a complexly adjusted 
and permanent equilibrium. This is a science of 
the greatest importance, one distinctly conceived, 
and named Christology.^ Or we may study the 
same in its gradual progressive approach, through- 
out all psychic times, toward the present spirit- 
ual condition of the individual and of the race, by 
continual psychic changes in the individual, and 
therefore disturbance of equilibrium and readjust- 
ment on a higher plane with more complex inter- 
relations. This is development of the psychic or 
spiritual kingdom, ^.e., kingdom of God ; it is 
psychic evolution. 

9. Side by side, and, indeed, as the moving cause 
of physical development, there has been an evolu- 
tion of the Christ principle (force). The first form 
of the Christ principle which manifested itself 
was what we call gravity, the divine energy by 
which the original chaotic mass or nebula was 
gradually organized into the heavens and the earth. 
Almost contemporaneousl}^ but one step above 
this manifestation of the Christ principle, appeared 
what we call chemical affinity, in the production 
of compounds, water, etc. This was followed by 
a still higher development of the Christ principle, 
viz., life, which appeared first in plants and then 
in animals. This was succeeded by a still higher 
manifestation of the Christ principle in the mind 
or anima of the lower animals ; and this, again, 

1 Christology, the science of psychic life. 



134 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

was succeeded by a still higher manifestation of 
the Christ principle in the animan or self-conscious 
soul of human beings, and this slowly developed 
into the self-conscious spirit of man, z.g., spirit 
consciousness — a Christ-man, the completed psy- 
chic evolution of the Christ principle. 

We might multiply examples without limit. 
There are the same three points of view on all 
subjects. As already said, in the first we are con- 
cerned with the cause of existence, z.e., the Christ 
principle or divine energy, the universal law of 
incarnation ; in the second we are concerned with 
things as they are; in the third, with the process 
by which they became so. This law of becoming 
in all things, this universal law of progressive 
inter-connected change, may be called the law of 
continuity. We all recognize the universal rela- 
tion of things, gravitative or other, in space. This 
asserts the universal causal relation of things in 
time. This is the universal law of evolution. 

But it has so happened that in the popular mind 
the term evolution is never applied to the develop- 
ment of the spiritual kingdom^ z.e., kingdom of God, 
but is mostly confined to the development of the 
organic kingdom, or the law of continuity as ap- 
plied to this department of nature. The reason of 
this is that this department was the last to acknowl- 
edge the supremacy of this law ; this is the domain 
in which the advocates of supernaturalism in the 
realm of nature had made their last stand. But 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 135 

now they are called upon to take another stand 
and consider the relation of the Christ principle or 
universal law of incarnation to nature. They are 
called upon not only to give up supernaturalism in 
the realm of nature, but in religion. All other 
conflicts were for outworks ; this strikes at the 
citadel. All others required only readjustment of 
claims, rectification of boundaries betwixt science 
and religion ; this requires nothing less than un- 
conditional surrender ; it being the last line of 
defence of the supporters of supernaturalism in 
religion. But being the last line of defence, the 
last ditch, it is evident that a yielding here im- 
plies not a mere shifting of line, but a change of 
base ; not a readjustment of details only, but a 
reconstruction of Christian theology. There can be 
little doubt in the mind of the thoughtful observer 
that we are even now on the eve of the greatest 
change in traditional views that has taken place 
since the birth of Christianity. But let no one be 
greatly disturbed thereby. For as then, so now, 
change comes not to destroy hut to fulfil all our 
dearest hopes and aspirations; as then, so now, the 
germ of living truth has, in the course of ages, 
become so incrusted with meaningless traditions 
which stifle its growth, that it is necessary to break 
the shell to set it free ; as then, so now, it has 
become necessary to purge religious belief of dross 
in the form of traditional interpretation, trivialities, 
and superstition. This has ever been and ever 



136 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

will be the function of science. It is also the 
function of the Christ-principle theory. The es- 
sentials of religious faith it cannot touch, but 
it purifies and ennobles our conception of the 
incarnation of Deity, and thus elevates the whole 
plane of religious thought. Those that think 
they can apprehend how God formed man of the 
dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils 
the breath of life, and man became a living soul, 
can see that it is no harder for God to com- 
municate divine energy, Christ principle, to the 
cosmos than it is to breathe divine energy into a 
clay man. I much prefer the Christ-principle view. 
If I can apprehend how the Divine Spirit, brooding 
upon primal chaos, communicated to it an influence, 
an energy, call it what you like, but I prefer to call 
it the Christ principle, which became the force of 
evolution of the cosmos ; if I apprehend how this 
is done, then I am present at the sowing of the seed 
of the cosmos. If I apprehend that I was once on 
the plane of elements, that I was a part of the 
Christ principle, divine energy, the effluence from 
the person of Deity, then I can truly say, I and my 
Father are one. Again, on the ascending scale, if 
I have completed my evolutipn and have become 
conscious spirit, conscious of spirit individuality, 
then I am on the Christ plane, and I can say, I and 
my Father are one ; he in me, and I in him. For 
this saying the Jews took up stones to throw at 
Jesus, the type of the Christ-man. Now, is there 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 137 

anything incomprehensible in this ? To those on 
the Christ plane, no. To those who are spiritually 
blind, yes. Once I was spiritually blind, but now 
I can see. We denote this spiritual sight or pri- 
mary wisdom as intuition. In that deep force, divine 
energy, z.e., Christ principle, all things find their 
common origin. For the sense of spirit being, 
spirit consciousness is not diverse from things, from 
space, from light, from time, from man, but one 
with them, and proceeds obviously from the same 
source whence their life and being also proceed. 
We first share the divine energy, the Christ prin- 
ciple, by which things exist, and afterward see them 
as appearances or manifestations in nature, and for- 
get that we have shared their cause until we come 
on to the Christ plane and are separated from nature, 
capable of independent spirit life, horn into a new 
and higher plane of existence. 

Although birth is its truest correspondence and 
best illustration, yet we may vary the illustration 
in many ways. In animals the Christ principle is 
deeply submerged in nature as beneath a water- 
surface, wholly unknowing of any higher, freer 
world above. On the Christ plane, in a Christ- 
man, spirit emerges above the surface into a higher 
world, looks down on nature beneath him, around 
on other emerged spirits about him, z.e., to the 
Christ in others, and inward to the Christ within 
himself. With this last spirit birth the Christ 
within us rends the thin rinds of the visible and 



138 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

finite, and comes out into eternity and inspires and 
expires its air. It converses with truths that have 
always been spoken in the world, and becomes 
conscious of a closer sympathy with Abraham, 
Moses, and the prophets, Socrates and Jesus, than 
with persons in tlie house. 

This is the law of psychical or spiritual growth. 
By every throe of growth or of psychic evolution 
the man expands there where he works, passing 
at each pulsation races and classes of men. The 
Christ-man, z.e., one in whom the Christ principle 
has come to spirit birth, rises as by specific levity, 
not into a particular virtue, but into the region of 
all the virtues, the Christ plane. He is in the 
spirit which contains them all. To the spirit in 
its pure action all the virtues are natural, and not 
painfully acquired. Those that have, through 
psychic evolution, the Christ within themselves, 
are already on a platform that commands the sci- 
ences and arts, speech, and action, and grace. 
For whoso dwells on the Christ plane does already 
anticipate those special powers which men prize 
so highly ; and the spirit which abandons itself to 
the Supreme Spirit finds itself related to all its 
works. For in ascending to the Christ plane we 
have come, as it were, to the centre of the uni- 
verse where, as in the closet of God, we see causes ; 
and here truth is revealed. 

We distinguish the announcements of the Christ 
within us, its manifestations of its own nature, by 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 139 

the term intuition. These moments are always at- 
tended by the emotion of the sublime. For this 
communication is an influx of the divine spirit into 
our spirit ; a recognition takes place. In these com- 
munications the power to see is not separated from 
the will to do, but the insight proceeds from obe- 
dience, and the obedience proceeds from a joyful 
perception. A thrill passes through all men at the 
reception of new truth ; every moment when the 
individual feels himself invaded by it is memora- 
ble. Always, I believe, by the necessity of our 
constitution a certain enthusiasm attends the indi- 
vidual's consciousness of the spirit's presence. 
The character and duration of this enthusiasm 
vary with the state of the individual, from an 
ecstasy and prophetic inspiration, which is its 
rarer appearance, to the faintest glow of spiritual 
emotion. As we more clearly perceive the mani- 
festations of the Christ within us^ we apprehend 
why it is that everywhere the history of religion 
betrays a tendency to enthusiasm. The experi- 
ences of religion are varying forms of awe and 
delight with which the individual spirit always 
mingles with the universal Spirit. 

The nature of these intuitions is always the 
same ; they are perceptions of the absolute law. 
They are solutions of the spirit's own questions, 
z.e., the Christ within you. They do not answer 
the questions which the understanding asks. The 
Christ within you answers never by words, but by 



140 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

the thing itself that is inquired after, the spirit 
or Christ within you becomes. Thus is the Christ 
within the perceiver and revealer of trutli ; and by 
the same spirit we see and know each other, and 
what spirit each is of, and what plane he is on. 
But who judges ? and what ? Not our understand- 
ing. We do not read them by learning or wit. 
No ; the wisdom of the Christ-man consists herein, 
that he does not judge them ; he lets them judge 
themselves, and merely reads and records their own 
verdict. 

By virtue of the Christ within, private will is 
overpowered, and maugre our efforts or our intel- 
lect, your genius will speak from you, and mine 
from me. That which we are, we shall teach, not 
voluntarily but involuntarily. On the Christ plane 
thoughts come into our minds through avenues 
which we know not, and thoughts go out of our 
minds through avenues which we know not. The 
Christ teaches over our head. The infallible index 
of true spiritual progress is found in the tone the 
man takes. The tone of seeking is one, and the 
tone of having is another. One class speak /rom 
within^ or from experience, as parties and possessors 
of the fact; and the other class from luitJiout^ as 
spectators merely, or perhaps as acquainted with 
the fact on the evidence of third persons. Jesus 
speaks always from the Christ plane, from spirit 
individuality ; he speaks always from within, and 
in a degree that transcends all others. Jesus said, 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 141 

" Believe in me," believe that I have reached spirit 
consciousness, immortality, that in myself I have 
brought psychic life and immortality to light, the 
Christ within me being my witness ; and that you 
may reach immortality through the same process, 
not by faith alone, but by psychic evolution. If 
there be any evolution par excellence it is evolution 
of the Christ principle or psychic evolution ; but 
evolution of the individual or embryonic develop- 
ment is the clearest, the most familiar, and most 
easily understood, and therefore the type of evolu- 
tion. We first take our idea of evolution from 
this form, and then extend it to the Christ principle 
and other forms of continuous change following a 
similar law. But since the popular mind limits 
the term to the development of the organic king- 
dom without a thought of extending evolution to 
the development of the spiritual kingdom, i.e.y 
kingdom of God, and since, moreover, it is neces- 
sary to acquire an adequate knowledge of evolu- 
tion as applied to the development of the organic 
kingdom before we can clearly apprehend its ap- 
plication to the development of the spiritual king- 
dom, we shall take our definition and scope of 
evolution from the organic department, though we 
shall illustrate freely by reference to psychic evolu- 
tion. 

Definition of Evolution. 

Evolution is (1) continuous progressive change., 
(2) according to certain laivs, (3) and by means of 



142 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

resident forces (divine energy). Embryonic devel- 
opment is the type of evolution. It will be ad- 
mitted that this definition is completely realized in 
this process. The change here is certainly contin- 
uously progressive ; it is according to certain well- 
ascertained laws ; it is by forces (one form of divine 
energy) resident in the Qgg itself. Is, then, the 
process of change in the spiritual kingdom through- 
out psychic times like this ? Does it correspond 
to the definition given above? Does it also de- 
serve the name of evolution ? We shall see. Is, 
then, the process of change in the organic kingdom 
throughout geologic times like this ? Does it cor- 
respond to the definition given above? Does it 
also deserve the name of evolution ? We shall see. 

1. Progressive material change. Every individ- 
ual animal body, say man's, has become what it 
now is by a gradual process. Commencing as 
a microscopic spherule of living but apparently 
unorganized protoplasm, it gradually added cell to 
cell, tissue to tissue, organ to organ, and function 
to function, thus becoming more and more complex 
in the mutual action of its correlated parts, as it 
passed successively through the stages of germ, 
Qgg^ embryo, and infant, to maturity. This ascend- 
ing series of genetically connected stages is called 
the embryonic or ontogenic series.^ 

2. Progressive psychic change. Every individ- 

1 Ontos-gennao (individual-making, or genesis of the individ- 
ual). 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 143 

ual spirit inhabiting or animating a material body 
has become what it now is by a gradual process, 
commencing as the Christ principle or divine 
energy and becoming more and more complex in 
the mutual action of its correlated parts, as it passed 
successively through the planes of elements, chemi- 
cal compounds, vegetal life, animal life, self-con- 
scious life, and spirit individuality, corresponding 
to the individual stages of germ, Qgg^ embryo, and 
infant, to maturity. Does not the progressive 
psychic change correspond to the definition of 
evolution? and does it not also deserve the name 
of evolution ? According to the evolution theory, 
the terms of this series also are genetically con- 
nected. It is therefore an evolution series. And 
may it not appropriately be called the taxonomic 
series? Furthermore, it is the most fundamental 
because it is the cause of the other series. 

There is another series the terms of which are 
coexistent, and which therefore is not in any sense 
a genetic or development series, but which it is 
important to mention because to some degree 
similar to and illustrative of the last. Com- 
mencing witli the lowest unicelled microscopic 
organisms, and passing up to the animal scale, as 
it now exists^ we find a series of forms similar, 
though not identical, with the last. Here, again, 
we find cell added to cell, tissue to tissue, organ to 
organ, and function to function, the animal body 
becoming more and more complex in structure, in 



144 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

the mutual action of its correlated parts and the 
mutual action with the environment, until we 
reach the highest complexity of structure and of 
internal and external relations only in the highest 
animals. This ascending series may be called the 
natural history series, or the classification or tax- 
onomic series?- The terms of this series are, of 
course, not genetically connected ; at least, not 
directly so connected. 

Finally, there is still a third series, the grandest 
and most fundamental of all, but only recently 
recognized, and therefore still imperfectly known. 
Commencing with the earliest organisms, the very 
dawn of life, in the very lowest rocks, and pass- 
ing onward and upward through eozoic, palaeozoic, 
mesozoic, cenozoic, to the psychozoic or present 
time, we again find, first, the lowest forms, and 
then successively forms more and more complex 
in structure, in the interaction of correlated parts, 
and in interaction with the environment, until we 
reach the most complex internal and external 
relations, and therefore the highest structure only 
in the present time. This series we will call the 
geological or phylogenic series.^ According to the 
evolution theory, the terms of this series also are 
genetically connected. It is, therefore, an evolu- 
tion series. Furthermore, it is the most funda- 
paental of the three series, because it is the cause 

1 Taxis-nomos (relating to science of arrangement). 

2 Phule-gennao (kind-making), genesis of the race. 



EVOLUTiaN OF FORCE, l45 

of the other two. The ontogenic series is like 
it because it is a brief recapitulation, through 
heredity, as it were from memory, of its main 
points. The taxonomic series is like it because 
the rate of advance along different lines was 
different in every degree, and therefore every 
stage of the advance is still represented in a 
general way among existing forms. 

It will be admitted, then, that we find pro- 
gressive change in organic forms throughout geo- 
logic times. This is the first point in the defini- 
tion of evolution. It will be observed, also, that 
we find progressive change in psychic mani- 
festation throughout psychic times ; because if 
there were no evolution of force or the Christ 
principle there would be no change in organic 
forms : they would be all on one plane. Then this 
is also the first point in the definition of psychic 
evolution. 

2. Change according to certain laws. — We 
have shown continuously progressive change in 
organic forms during the whole geologic history 
of the earth, and hence continuously progressive 
change in psychic manifestation during the whole 
psychic history of the world, similar in a general 
way to that observed in embryonic development. 
We wish now to show that the laws of change are 
similar in the two cases. What, then, are the 
laws of succession of organic forms in geologic 
times? Prof. Joseph LeConte has formulated 



146 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

them thus : a. The law of differentiation ; h. 
The law of progress of the whole ; c. The law of 
cyclical movement. We will take up these and 
explain them successively, and then afterward 
show that they are also the laws of embryonic 
development, and therefore the laws of evolution. 
a. Law of differentiation. — It is a most signifi- 
cant fact, to which attention was first strongly 
directed by Louis Agassiz, that the earliest repre- 
sentatives of any group — whether class, order, or 
family — were not what we would call typical rep- 
resentatives of that group ; but, on the contrary, 
they were, in a wonderful degree connecting 
links ; z.e., that along with their distinctive classic, 
ordinal, or family characters they possessed also 
other characters which connected them closely 
with other classes, orders, or families now widely 
distinct, without connecting links or intermediate 
forms. For example: the earliest vertebrates 
were fishes, but not typical fishes. On the con- 
trary, they were fishes so closely connected by 
many characters with amphibian reptiles that 
we hardly know whether to call some of them 
reptilian fishes or fish-like reptiles. From these, 
as from a common vertebrate stem, were afterward 
separated, by slow changes from generation to 
generation, in two directions, the typical fishes 
and the true reptiles. So, also, to take another 
example, the first birds were far different from 
typical birds as we now know them. They were. 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 147 

on the contrary, birds so reptilian in character 
that there is still some doubt whether bird char- 
acters or reptilian characters predominated in the 
mixture, and therefore whether they ought to be 
called reptilian birds or bird-like reptiles. From 
this common stem the more specialized modern 
reptiles branched off in one direction, and typical 
birds in another, and intermediate forms became 
extinct; until now the two classes stand widely 
apart, without apparent genetic connection. 

Now, to take an example — of man — for the 
purpose of bringing out our idea of immortality. 
The completed Christ principle or completed psy- 
chic evolution is an immortal man ; then a Christ- 
man is a typical psychic man, all intermediate forms 
become extinct, i.e., are not immortal ; the body 
returns to dust, and the animan or soul to the gen- 
eral fund, if it does not, while in the material body, 
come to spirit birth, spirit individuality, i.e.., im- 
mortality. In psychic evolution the Christ-man 
and the unregenerate man stand widely apart, with- 
out apparent genetic connection. Some scientists 
and theologians have been compelled to grant that 
man's physical organism has been developed from 
a lower animal form, but they draw a line at his 
psychic or spiritual nature ; assert that his spirit 
could not have been evolved from the anima of 
animals. For my own part, I see no possibility of 
drawing so imaginary a line, and therefore I accept 
the evolution of man, body., soul, and spirit, from a 



148 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

lower animal form. This subject will be more 
fully treated hereafter. 

Such early forms, combining the characters of 
two or more groups now widely separated, were 
called by Agassiz connecting types, combining types, 
synthetic types, and sometimes prophetic types ; by 
Dana, comprehensive types ; and by Huxley, gen- 
eralized types. They are most usually known now 
as generalized types, and their widely separated 
outcomes specialized types. Thus, in general, we 
may say that the widely separated groups of the 
present day, when traced back in geological times, 
approach one another more and more until they 
finally unite to form common stems, and these in 
their turn unite to form a common trunk. From 
such a common trunk, by successive branching and 
rebranching, each branch taking a different direc- 
tion and all growing wider and wider apart (dif- 
ferentiating), have been gradually generated all 
the diversified forms which we see at the present 
day. The last leafy ramifications — flower-bearing 
and fruit-bearing — of this tree of life are the fauna 
and flora of the present epoch. The law might be 
called a law of ramification, of specialization of the 
parts and diversification of the whole. 

h. Law of progress of the whole. — Many ima- 
gine that progress is the one law of evolution ; in 
fact, that evolution and progress are co-extensive 
and convertible terms. They imagine that in evo- 
lution the movement must be upward and onward 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 149 

ill all parts ; that degeneration is the opposite of 
evolution. This is far from the truth. There is, 
doubtless, in evolution, progress to higher and 
higher planes; but not along every line, nor in 
every part ; for this would be contrary to the law 
of differentiation. It is only progress of the whole 
organic kingdom in its entirety. This is also the 
law of ps3^chic evolution. There is, doubtless, in 
psychic evolution progress to higher and higher 
planes ; but not along every line, nor in every part ; 
for this would be contrary to the law of differenti- 
ation. It is only progress of the whole spiritual 
kingdom in its entirety. We can best make this 
clear by an illustration. A growing tree branches 
and again branches in all directions^ some branches 
going upward, some sidewise, and some downward 
— anywhere, everywhere, for light and air ; but the 
whole tree grows ever taller in its higher branches, 
larger in the circumference of its outstretching arms, 
and more diversified in structure. Even so the tree 
of life, by the law of differentiation, branches and 
rebranches continually in all directions — some 
branches going upward to higher planes (progress), 
some pushing horizontally, neither rising nor sink- 
ing, but only going farther from the generalized 
origin (specialization) ; some going downward (de- 
generation), anywhere, everywhere, for an unoccu- 
pied place in the economy of nature ; but the whole 
tree grows ever higher in its highest parts, grander 
in its proportions, and more complexly diversified 
in its structure. 



150 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

It may be well to pause here a moment to show 
how this mistaken identification of evolution with 
progress alone, without modification by the more 
fundamental laws of differentiation, has given rise 
to misconceptions in the popular and even in the 
scientific mind. The biologist is continually met 
with the question, " Do you mean to say that any 
one of the invertebrates, such, for instance, as a 
spider, may eventually, in the course of successive 
generations, become a vertebrate, or that a dog or 
a monkey is on the highway to become a man ? 
By no means. There is but one strait and nar- 
row way to the highest in evolution as in all else, 
and few there be that have found it — in fact, 
probably two or three only at every step. The ani- 
mals mentioned above have diverged from that 
way. In their ancestral history they have missed 
the golden opportunity, if they ever had it. It is 
easy to go on in the way they have chosen, but 
impossible to get back on the ascending trunk line. 
To compare again with the growing tree, only one 
straight trunk line leads upward to the terminal 
bud. A branch once separated must grow its own 
way, if it grow at all. 

Of the same nature is the mistake of some 
extreme evolutionists, such as Dr. Bastian and 
Professor Haeckel, and of nearly all anti-evolu- 
tionists, viz., that of imagining that the truth of 
evolution and that of spontaneous generation must 
stand or fall together. On the contrary, if life did 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 151 

once arise spontaneously from any lower forces, 
physical or chemical, by natural process, the condi- 
tiofis necessary/ for • so extraordinary a change could 
hardly he expected to occur hut once in the history of 
the earth. They are, therefore, now not only unre- 
producible, but unimaginable. Such golden op- 
portunities do not recur. Evolution goes only 
onward. Therefore, the impossibility of the deri- 
vation of life from non-life now is no more an 
argument against such a derivation once than is 
the hopelessness of a worm ever becoming a ver- 
tebrate noiD an argument against the derivative 
origin of vertebrates. Doubtless, if life were now 
extinguished from the face of the earth, it could 
not again be rekindled by any natural process 
known to us ; but the same is probably true of 
every step of evolution. If any class — for ex- 
ample, mammals — were now destroyed, it could 
not be re-formed from au}^ other class now living. 
It would be necessary to go back to the time and 
condition of the separation of this class from the 
reptilian stem. Therefore, the falseness of the 
doctrine of abiogenesis,^ so far from being any 
argument against evolution, is exactly what a true 
conception of evolution and knowledge of its laws 
would lead us to expect. 

c. Law of cyclical movement. — The movement 
of evolution has ever been onward and upward, it 
is true, but not at uniform rate in the whole, and 
1 Genesis without previous life ; spontaneous generation. 



152 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

especially in the parts. On the contrary, it has 
plainly moved in successive cycles. The tide of 
evolution rose ever higher and higher, without 
ebb, but it nevertheless came in successive waves, 
each higher than the preceding and overborne by 
the succeeding. These successive cycles are the 
dynasties or reigns of Agassiz, and ages of Dana ; 
the reign of mollusks, the reign of fishes, of rep- 
tiles, of mammals, and finally of man. During the 
early palaeozoic times (Cambrian and Silurian) 
there were no vertebrates. But never in the his- 
tory of the earth were mollusks of greater size, 
number, and variety of form than then. They 
were truly the rulers of these early seas. In the 
absence of competition of still higher animals, they 
had things all their own way, and therefore grew 
into a great monopoly of power. In the later 
palaeozoic (Devonian) fishes were introduced. They 
increased rapidly in size, number, and variety, and 
being of higher organization they quickly usurped 
the empire of the seas, while the mollusca dwindled 
in size and importance, and sought safety in a less 
conspicuous position. In the mesozoic times, rep- 
tiles, introduced a little earlier, finding congenial 
conditions and an unoccupied place above, rapidly 
increased in number, variety, and size, until sea 
and land seem to have swarmed with them. Never 
before or since have reptiles existed in such num- 
bers, in such variety of form, or assumed such 
large proportions, nor have they ever since been 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 153 

SO highly organized as then. They quickly became 
rulers in every realm of nature — rulers of the sea, 
swimming reptiles ; rulers of the land, walking 
reptiles ; and rulers of the air, flying reptiles. In 
the unequal contest, fishes sought safety in subor- 
dination. Meanwhile mammals were introduced 
in the mesozoic, but small in size, low in type 
(marsupials), and by no means able to contest the 
empire with the reptiles. But in the cenozoic 
(tertiary), the conditions apparently becoming 
favorable for their development, they rapidly in- 
creased in number, size, variety, and grade of 
organization, and quickly overpowered the great 
reptiles, which almost immediately sank into the 
subordinate position in which we now find them, 
and thus found comparative safety. Finally, in 
the quaternary, appeared man, contending doubt- 
fully for a while with the great mammals, but soon 
(in psychozoic) acquiring mastery through supe- 
rior intelligence. The huge and dangerous mam- 
mals were destroyed and are still being destroyed ; 
the useful animals and plants were preserved and 
made subservient to his wants ; and all things on 
the face of the earth are being readjusted to the 
requirements of his rule. In all cases it will be 
observed that the rulers were such because, by rea- 
son of strength, organization, and intelligence, they 
were fittest to rule. There is always room at the 
top. To illustrate again by a growing tree : This 
successive culniing.tion of higher and higher classes 



164 



PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 



may be compared to the flowering and fruiting of 
successively higher and higher branches. Each 
uppermost branch, under tlie genial heat and light 
of direct sunshine, received in abundance by reason 
of position, grew rapidly, flowered, and fruited, 
but quickly dwindled when overshadowed by still 
higher branches, which, in their turn, monopolized 
for a time the precious sunshine. 

But observe, furthermore : when each rulinof 
class declined in importance, it did not perish, but 
continued in a subordinate position. Thus the 
whole organic kingdom became not only, higher 
and higher in its highest forms, but also more and 
more complex in its structure and in the inter- 
action of its correlated parts. The whole process 
and its result are roughly represented in the accom- 
panying diagram. 




SILURIAN. DEVON. AND 
CARB. 



Fig. 2, in which A B represents the course of geological times, and the curve 
the rise, culmination, and decline of successive dominant clasees. 



The above three laws are laws of evolution. 

These three laws we have shown are distinctly 
recognizable in the succession of organic forms in 
the geological history of the earth. They are, 
therefore, undoubtedly the general laius of succes- 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 155 

szon. Are they also laws of evolution ? Are they 
also discoverable in embryonic development, the 
type of evolution ? They are, as we now proceed 
to show. 

Differentiation. — In reproduction the new indi- 
vidual appears : 1. Asa fferm-cell — -single micro- 
scopic living cell. 2. Then, by growth and multi- 
plication of cells, it becomes an egg. This may 
be characterized as an aggregate of similar cells, 
and therefore is not yet differentiated into tissues 
and organs. In other words, it is not yet visibly 
organized ; for organization may be defined as the 
possession of different parts, performing different 
functions, and all co-operating for one given end, 
viz., the life and well-being of the organism. 3. 
Then commences the really characteristic process 
of development, viz., differentiation or diversifica- 
tion. The cells are at first all alike in form and 
function, for all are globular in form, and each 
performs all the functions necessary for life. From 
this common point now commences development 
in different directions^ which may be compared to a 
branching and rebranching, with more and more 
complex results, according as the animal is higher 
in the scale of organization and advances toward a 
state of maturity. First, the cell -aggregate (egg) 
separates into three distinct layers of cells, called 
ectoblast, endoblast, and mesoblast. These by fur- 
ther differentiation form the three fundamental 
groups of organs and functions, viz., the nervous 



156 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 



tem^ the nutritive system^ and the hlood system : 
the first presiding over the exchange of force or 
influence, by action and reaction with the environ- 
ment, and between the different parts of the organ- 
ism ; the second presiding over the exchange of 
matter with the environment, by absorption and 
elimination ; the tliird presiding over exchanges of 
matter between different parts of the organism. 
Following out any one of these groups in higher 
animals, say the nervous system, it quickly differ- 
entiates again into two sub-systems, viz., cerebro- 
spinal and ganglionic, each having its own distinct- 
ive functions which we cannot stop to explain. 
Then the cerebo-spinal again differentiates into 
voluntary and reflex systems. All of these have 
meanwhile separated into sensory and motor cen- 
tres and fibres. Then, taking only the sensory 
fibres, these again are differentiated into five spe- 
cial senses, each having a wholly different func- 
tion. Then, finally, taking any one of these, say 
the sense of touch or feeling, this again is differen- 
tiated 'into many kinds of fibres, each responding 
to a different impression, some to heat, others to 
cold, still others to pressure, etc. We have taken 
the nervous system ; but the same differentiation 
takes place in all other systems, and is carried to 
higher and higher points according to the position 
in the scale of the animal which is to be formed. 

Or, to vary the mode of presentation a little, the 
cells of the original aggregate, commencing all 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. ISf 

alike, immediately begin to take on different 
forms, in order to perform different functions. 
Some cells take on a certain form, and aggregate 
themselves to form a peculiar tissue which we call 
muscle, and which does nothing else, can do noth- 
inf else, than contract under stimulus. Another 
group of cells take on another peculiar form, and 
aggregate themselves to form another and very 
different tissue, viz., nervous tissue, which does 
nothing, and can do nothing, but carry influence 
hack and forth between the great external world 
and the little world of conscious7iess within. Still 
another group of cells take still another form, and 
aggregate to form still another tissue, viz., the 
epithelial, whose only function is to absorb nutri- 
tive and eliminate waste matter. Thus, by differ- 
entiation of form and limitation of function, or 
division of labor, the different parts of the organ- 
ism are bound more and more closely together by 
mutual dependence, and the whole becomes more 
and more distinctly individuated, and separation 
of parts becomes more and more a mutilation, and 
finally becomes impossible without death. This 
process, as already said, reaches its highest point 
only in the later stages of development of the 
highest animals. 

Progress. — The law of progress is, of course, 
admitted to be a law of ontogeny ; but observe 
here, also, it is true only of the whole, and not 
necessarily of all parts, except from the point of 



158 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

view of the whole. Thus, for example, starting all 
from a common form or generalized type, some 
cells advance to the dignity of brain-cells, whose 
function is, somehow connected with the generation, 
or at least the manifestation of thought, will, and 
emotion ; other cells descend to the position of kid- 
ney-cells, whose sole function is the excretion of 
urine. But here, also, the higher cells are succes- 
sively higher, and the whole aggregate is succes- 
sively noble and more complex. It is again a 
branching and rebranching, in every direction, 
some going upward, some downward, some horizon- 
tally, anywhere, everywhere, to increase the com- 
plexity of relations internal and external, and 
therefore to elevate the plane of the whole. 

Cyclical movement. — Lastly, the law of cyclical 
movement is also a law of ontogeny and therefore of 
evolution. This law, however, is less fundamental 
than the other two, and is, therefore, less conspic- 
uous in the ontogenic than in the phylogenic 
series. It is conspicuous only in the later stage of 
ontogeny, and in other higher kinds of evolution. 
For example, in the ontogenic development of the 
body and mind from childhood to manhood we 
have plainly successive culminations and declines 
of higher and higher functions. In bodily devel- 
opment we have culminating, first, the nutritive 
functions, then the reproductive and muscular^ and 
last the cerebral. In psychic development we have 
culmination first of the receptive and retentive 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 159 

faculties in childhood, then of imaginative and 
aesthetic faculties in youth and young manhood ; 
than of the reflective and elaborative faculties, the 
faculties of productive work, in mature manhood ; 
and, finally, the birth of the spiritual or completed 
psychic evolution in mature age. The first gathers 
and stores materials ; the second vivifies and makes 
them plastic building materials; the third uses 
them in actual constructive work, in building the 
temple of science and philosophy; and the fourth 
building the temple of the living God ivithin^ i.e.^ 
spiritual life, immortality. Thus psychic evolu- 
tion in the individual reaches the highest or Christ 
plane. 

Observe here, also, that when each group of fac- 
ulties culminates and declines, it does not perish, 
but only becomes subordinate to the next higher 
dominant group, and the whole psychical organism 
(spiritual organism) becomes not only higher and 
higher in its highest functions, but also more and 
more complex in its structure and in the interaction 
of its correlated parts. 

Observe, again, the necessity laid upon us by 
this law, the necessity of continued and completed 
psychic evolution, as in completed psychic evolu- 
tion onlT/ the individual reaches spirit individuality 
and immortality. Childhood, beautiful childhood, 
cannot remain ; it must quickly pass. If, with the 
decline of its characteristic faculties, the next 
higher psychic group characteristic of youth do 



160 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

not increase and become dominant, then the glory 
of life is already past and deterioration begins. 
Have we not all seen sad examples of this ? Youth, 
glorious youth, must also pass. If the next higher 
psychic group of reflective and elaborative faculties 
do not arise and dominate, then progressive deteri- 
oration of character commences here ; thencefor- 
ward the whole nature becomes coarse, as we so 
often see in young men, or else shrivels and 
withers as we so often see in young women. Fi- 
nally, manhood, strong and self-relying manhood, 
must also pass. If the moral and religious nature 
has not been slowly growing and gathering 
strength all along, and does not now assert its 
dcwninance over the whole man, then commences 
the final and saddest decline of all, and old age be- 
comes the pitiable thing we so often see it. In other 
words, if regeneration does not take place, z.e., if 
the spirit embryo does not come to birth, then the 
soul goes down to death without a reasonable hope 
of immortality. But if psychic evolution has 
been normal throughout ; if the highest moral and 
religious nature has been gathering strength by 
growth through all, and now dominates all ; z.e., if 
the spirit embryo has come to spirit birth, spirit 
individuality, then psychic evolution is complete 
and rises to the end, and immortality is certain. 
Moreover, the individual may live and enjoy for 
many years a foretaste of that immortality which 
is incorruptible ; for he has reached the Christ 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 161 

plane and psychic or spiritual kingdom, z.e., 
kingdom of God, and the Christ dispensation^ all 
through the process and completion of psychic 
evolution. 

We have thus far illustrated the three laws of 
succession of organic forms by ontogeny because 
this is the type of evolution ; but they may be 
illustrated also by other forms of evolution. Next 
to the development of the individual, undoubtedly 
the progress of society furnishes the best illustra- 
tion of these laws. We will not stop to give this 
illustration, but pass on to the progress of religion. 

So also progress is here, as in other forms of 
evolution, a progress of the whole, but not necessa- 
rily of every part. Some members of the religious 
aggregate advance upward to the Christ plane and 
spiritual dignity of Christ-men ; some advance 
downward to the plane of spiritual death. But the 
highest members are progressively higher, and 
the whole aggregate is progressively grander 
and more complex in structure and function. 

So, again, the law of cyclical movement is equally 
conspicuous here. Religion advances, not uni- 
formly, but by successive waves, each higher than 
the last ; each urged hy a new and higher psychic 
force, and embodying a new and higher phase of 
religion. Again, as each phase declines, its charac- 
teristic spiritual force is not lost, but becomes 
incorporated into the next higher phase as a subor- 
dinate principle ; and thus the religious organism 



162 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

as a whole becomes not only higher and higher, hut 
also more and more complex in the mutual rela- 
tion of its interacting psychic forces. 

Let us not be misunderstood, however. There 
is in psychic evolution something more and higher 
than we have described. There is in religion a 
voluntary progress wholly different from the psy- 
chic evolution we have been describing. In true 
religion, or psychic evolution, natural law works 
for the betterment of the whole utterly regardless 
of the elevation of the individual, and the indi- 
vidual contributes to the advance of the whole 
quite unconsciously while striving only for his own 
betterment. This unconscious psychic evolution 
by natural law, inherited or evolved from the ani- 
mal kingdom, is conspicuous enough in religion, 
especially in its early stages ; but we would make 
a great mistake if we imagined, as materialists do, 
that this is all. Besides the unconscious evolu- 
tion by natural laws inherited from helow^ there is a 
higher evolution inherited from above, viz., Christ 
p7Hnciple, or psychic evolution, indissolubly con- 
nected with man's spiritual nature, — a conscious, 
voluntary striving of the best members of the 
religious aggregate for the betterment of the 
whole, a conscious, voluntary striving of the indi- 
vidual toward a recognized ideal, viz., Jesus, the 
type of completed psychic evolution. In the one 
kind of evolution the fittest are those most in har- 
mony with the environment, and which therefore 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 163 

always survive ; in the other, or psychic evolution, 
the fittest are those most in harmony with the 
ideal, and which often do not survive. The laws 
of this free voluntary progress are little understood. 
They are of supreme importance. We will speak 
of it again in another chapter. 

The three laws above mentioned might be illus- 
trated equally well by all other forms of evolution. 
We have selected only those which are most famil- 
iar. They may, therefore, be truly called the 
laws of evolution. We have shown that they are 
the laws of succession of organic forms. 

8. Change by means of resident forces. — Thus 
far in our argument I suppose that most well- 
informed men will raise no objection. It will 
be admitted, I think, even by those most bitterly 
opposed to the theory of evolution, that there has 
been throughout the whole geological history of 
the earth an onward movement of the organic 
kingdom to higher and higher levels. It will be 
admitted, also, that there is a grand and most sig- 
nificant resemblance between the course of devel- 
opment of the organic and the course of embryonic 
development, — between the laws of succession of 
organic forms and the laws of ontogenic evolution. 

It will also be admitted, I think, even by those 
most bitterly opposed to the Christ-principle theory 
or psychic evolution, that there has been throughout 
the whole psychic history of the earth an onward 
movement of the psychic kingdom to higher and 



164 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

higher levels. It will be admitted, also, that there 
is a grand and most significant resemblance be- 
tween the course of development of the psychic 
and the course of embryonic development, — be- 
tween the laws of succession of psychic manifesta- 
tions and the laws of ontogenic evolution. 

But there is another essential element in onto- 
genic evolution. It is that the forces or causes of 
evolution are natural; that they reside in the 
thing developing, and in the reacting environment. 
This is also an essential element in psychic evolu- 
tion. It is that the Christ principle^ or cause of 
psychic evolution, is natural and not supernatural ; 
that it resides in the individual or thing develop- 
ing, and in the reacting environment. This we 
know is true of psychic development ; it is true 
also of embryonic development. Is it true also of 
the geologic succession of organic forms ? It is 
true of ontogeny^ is it true also of phylogeny? 
If not, then only by a metaphor can we call the 
process of change in the organic kingdom through- 
out geological history an evolution. This is the 
point of discussion, and not only of discussion, 
but, alas, of heated and angry dispute. The 
field of discussion, as yet^ is thus narrowed to this 
third point only, as the Christ-principle theory of 
psychic evolution is not yet in the field. 

Before stating the two opposite views of the 
cause of evolution, it is necessary to remind 
the reader that when the evolutionist speaks of the 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 165 

forces that determine progressive changes in or- 
ganic forms as resident or inherent^ all that he 
means, or ought to mean, is that they are resident 
in the same sense as all natural forces are resident ; 
in the same sense that the vital forces of the em- 
bryo are resident in the embryo, or that the forces 
of the development of the solar system according 
to the nebular or any other cosmogonic hypothesis 
are resident in that system. In other words, they 
mean only that they are natural^ not supernatural. 
This does not, of course, touch that deeper, that 
deepest of all questions^ viz., the essential nature 
and origin of natural forces ; how far they are in- 
dependent and self-existent, and how far they are 
only modes of divine energy., as expressed in the 
Christ-principle theory of psychic evolution. This 
question is discussed in another place. 

The two views briefly contrasted. As already 
stated, all will admit a grand resemblance between 
the stages of embryonic development and those of 
the development of the organic kingdom. This 
was first brought out clearly by Louis Agassiz, 
and is, in fact, the greatest result of his life-work. 
All admit, also, that the embryonic development 
is a natural process. Is the development of the 
organic kingdom also a natural process ? All biol- 
ogists of the present day contend that it is ; all the 
old-school naturalists, with Agassiz at their head, 
and all anti-evolutionists of every school, contend 
that it is not. We take Agassiz as the type of this 



166 , PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

school, because he has most fully elaborated and 
most distinctly formulated this view. As formu- 
lated by him, it has stood in the minds of many as 
an alternative and substitute for evolution. 

According to the evolutionists, all organic forms, 
whether species, genera, families, orders, classes, 
etc., are variable ; and, if external conditions favor, 
these variations accumulate in one direction and 
gradually produce new forms, the intermediate 
links being usually destroyed or dying out. Ac- 
cording to Agassiz, the higher groups, such as 
genera, families, orders, etc., are indeed variable 
by the introduction of new species, but species are 
the ultimate elements of classification, and, like 
the ultimate elements of chemistry, are unchange- 
able ; hence the speculations of the evolutionist 
concerning the transmutation of species are as 
vain as were the speculations of the alchemist con- 
cerning the transmutation of metals; that the 
origin of man, for example, from any lower 
species is as impossible as the origin of gold 
from any baser metal. Both sides admit frequent 
change of species during geological history, but 
one regards the change as a change by gradual 
transmutation of one species into another through 
successive generations and by natural process ; the 
other, as change by substitution of one species /or 
another by direct supernatural creative act. Both 
admit the gradual development of the organic king- 
dom as a whole through stages similar to those of 



EVOLUTION OF FORCE. 167 

embryonic development; but the one regards the 
whole process as natural., and therefore strictly 
comparable to embryonic development; the other, 
as requiring frequent special interference of cre- 
ative energy, and therefore comparable rather to 
the development of a building under the hand and 
according to the preconceived plan of an architect 
— a plan, in this case, conceived in eternity and 
carried out consistently through infinite time. It 
is seen that the essential point of difference is this : 
the one asserts the variability of species (if con- 
ditions favor, and time enough is given) without 
limit ; the other asserts the permanency of specific 
forms, or their variability only within narrow lim- 
its. The one asserts the origin of species by '' de- 
scent with modifications ; " the other, the origin of 
species by " special act of creation." The one as- 
serts the law of continuity (z.e., that each stage 
is the natural outcome of the immediately pre- 
ceding stage) in this as in every other department 
of nature ; the other asserts that the law of con- 
tinuity (z.e., of cause and effect) does not hold in 
this department; that the links of the chain of 
changes are discontinuous, the connection between 
them being intellectual, not physical.^ 

1 Le Conte, *' Evolution and its Relation to Religious Thought." 



168 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 



CHAPTER III. 

GENERAL EVIDENCES OF EVOLUTION AS A UNI- 
VERSAL LAW. 

Before proceeding further we will give some 
of the general evidences of evolution. And let us 
again remind the reader that evolution means, first 
of all, continuity. The law of evolution, although 
it doubtless means much more, means, first of all, 
a law of continuity, or causal relation throughout 
nature. It means that, alike in every department 
of nature, each state or condition grew naturally 
out of the immediately preceding. In a word, it 
means that in the course of nature nothing appears 
suddenly and without natural cause, but, on the 
contrary, everything is the natural and usually the 
gradual outcome of a previous condition. This is 
now admitted by every one in regard to nearly 
everything. Evolutionists apply it to the whole 
course of nature. I said this is notv admitted by 
every one in regard to nearly everything. But this 
has not always been so. The world has come to 
its present position on this subject only by a very 
gradual process. Let us then trace rapidly the 



GENERAL EVIDENCES. 169 

history of the gradual change, for it will prepare us 
for much that follows. 

There was a time, and that not many decades 
ago, when all things the origin of which tran- 
scends our ordinary experience were supposed to 
have originated suddenly and without natural pro- 
cess, to have been made at once out of hand. 
There was a time when, for example, mountains 
were supposed to have been made at once, with all 
their diversified forms, just as we find them now. 
But now we know that they have become so only 
by a very gradual process, and are still changing 
under our very eyes. In a word, they have been 
formed by a process of evolution. There was a 
time when continents and seas, gulfs, bays, and 
rivers, were supposed to have originated at once, 
substantially as we now see them. Now we know 
that they have been changing throughout all geo- 
logical time, and are still changing. Not, how- 
ever, change back and forth in any direction in- 
differently and without goal, but gradual change 
from less perfect to more perfect condition, with 
more and more complex inter-relations, z.e., by a 
process of evolution. We are able now, though 
still imperfectly, to trace some of the stages of this 
evolution. There was a time when rocks and soils 
were supposed to have been always rocks and soils ; 
when soils were regarded as an original clothing 
made on purpose to hide the rocky nakedness of 
the new-born earth. God clothed the earth so, and 



170 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

there an end. Now we know that rocks rot down 
to soils ; soils are carried down and deposited as 
sediments; and sediments reconsolidate as rocks, 
the same materials being worked over and over 
again, passing through all these stages many times 
in the history of the earth. In a word, there was 
a time when it was thought that the earth with 
substantially its present form, configuration, and 
climate was made at once out of hand, as a fit hab- 
itation for man and animals. Now we know that 
it has been changing, preparing, becoming what it 
is by a slow process, through a lapse of time so 
vast that the mind sinks exhausted in the attempt 
to grasp it. It has become what it now is by a 
process of evolution. The same change of view has 
taken place concerning the origin of all the heavenly 
bodies. We may, therefore, confidently generalize, 
we may assert without fear of contradiction, that 
all inorganic forms., without exception, have origi- 
nated by a process of evolution. 

The proof of all this we owe to geology, a science 
born of the present century. This science estab- 
lishes the law of universal continuity of events 
through infinite time., as astronoiny does that of uni- 
versal inter-relation of objects through infinite space. 
How great the change these two sciences have 
made in the realm of human thought ! Until the 
birth of modern astronomy the intellectual space 
horizon of the human mind was bounded substanti- 
ally by the dimensions of the earth; sun, moon, 



GENERAL EVIDENCES, 171 

and stars being but inconsiderable bodies circulat- 
ing at a little distance about the earth, and for our 
behoof. Astronomy was then but the geometry of 
the curious lines traced by these wandering fires on 
the concave blackboard of heaven. With the first 
glance through a telescope the phases of Venus 
and the satellites of Jupiter revealed clearly to 
the mind the existence of other worlds besides and 
like our own. In that moment the idea of infinite 
space full of worlds like our own was for the first 
time completely realized, and became thencefor- 
ward the heritage of man. In that moment the 
intellectual horizon of man was infinitely extended. 
So also until the birth of geology, about the begin- 
ning of the present century, the intellectual time 
horizon of the human mind was bounded by six 
thousand years. The discovery about that time of 
vertebrate remains, all v/holly different from those 
now inhabiting the earth, revealed the existence of 
other time-faunas besides our own, and the idea of 
infinite time, of which the life of humanity is but 
an epoch, was born in the mind of man; and again 
the intellectual horizon of man was infinitely ex- 
tended. These two are the grandest ideas, and 
their introduction the greatest epochs, in the intel- 
lectual history of man. We have long accepted 
and readjusted our mental furniture to the require- 
ments of the one, but the necessary readjustment 
to the other is not yet complete. 

All inorganic forms, then, it is admitted, have 



172 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

come by evolution. But how is it with organic or 
living forms? Let us see. 

Every one knows, because it is within the lim- 
its of ordinary experience, that every individual 
organism now originates and gradually becomes 
what we see it by a natural process, that is, evolu- 
tion. If, then, there be any exception, it must be 
only the first of every kind. But what kind? 
There are many kinds of kinds, — classes, orders, 
families, genera, species, varieties. Now, many of 
these kinds can be shown to have become what we 
see them by a gradual process similar at least to 
evolution. Take, for example, classes. The class 
of fishes and the class of reptiles are now widely 
distinct and have little in common except a 
vertebrate structure ; but, as already shown, this 
extreme difference has not always existed. On 
the contrary, the earliest representatives of these 
two classes so merged into one another that each 
seemed either. From this common stock the two 
classes were gradually separated, each going its 
own way and becoming more and more widely 
distinct even to the present day. There can be no 
doubt, therefore, that these two classes^ as we now 
know them, have become what they are by a grad- 
ual process. Again, in the whole of nature 
there is not a class more distinctly separate from 
every other and without intermediate links than 
birds. But this has not always been so. They 
have gradually become so. The earliest birds 



GENERAL EVIDENCES. 173 

were so reptilian in structure and appearance that 
if we could see them now we would be in doubt 
whether we should call them birds or reptiles. 
Birds have gradually separated themselves from 
the reptilian stem, becoming more and more bird- 
like from age to age, until now, at last, the two 
classes are wholly separated and the intermediate 
links destroyed. So far as external characters are 
concerned, birds may be said to have finally and 
wholly released themselves from entangling alli- 
ance with any other class. 

Classes, then, it will be admitted, have undoubt- 
edly become what we now know them by a very 
gradual process, following laws identical, as we 
have already seen, with the laws of evolution. 
Shall we try orders ? Of the class mammalia 
there are two well-recognized and widely distinct 
orders., viz., the carnivores and the herbivores. 
We all know how widely diverse these are in form, 
in structure, in habits, and in food. Has it always 
been so ? Have these been made so at once ? By 
no means. They have gradually become so. The 
earlier mammals were neither the one nor the 
other distinctively. They were omnivores, com- 
pletely intermediate in food, habits, form, and 
structure. From this common stock the two 
orders have gradually separated, the carnivores 
becoming more and more adapted to one mode of 
life and the herbivores to another, by a process 
following the laws of evolution, as already ex- 



174 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

plained. Shall we try families and genera ? Marsh 
and Huxley have shown us how completely the 
horse family (equidce) and the horse genus 
(equus) illustrate the process of gradual becoming 
and the law of evolution. Under their guidance, 
we see that the earliest traceable ancestor of the 
horse family, before it was distinctively a horse 
family at all, had on the fore-foot five toes in the 
lower eocene, four toes in the upper eocene, and 
three toes in the miocene ; then we see the two side- 
toes shortening up more and more in the pliocene 
and becoming rudimentary splints, leaving only 
one toe in the quaternary and present epochs. 
Thus the side-splints in the foot of the modern 
horse tell the story of its three-toed ancestry. 
Similar gradual changes are clearly traceable in 
size, shape, structure of limbs, of teeth, and of 
brain. In all respects the members of the horse 
family have become more and more horse-like in 
the course of time. 

We have taken only a few examples, but the 
same is undoubtedly true of all taxonomic groups 
above species. Passing over these for the mo- 
ment, we next take races and varieties. These 
smaller groups are admitted by all to be formed 
by a natural process, because not only can we 
make them artificially, but all the intermedi- 
ate links may be found in nature. So we have 
only species remaining. Yes, species are imagined 
by the old-school naturalists and by the anti-evolu- 



GENERAL EVIDENCES. 175 

tionists of to-day as the ultimate elements of tax- 
onomy. This, then, is the last ditch upon which the 
defence of supernaturalism in the realm of nature 
is made. " Other groups," they say, '' may have 
gradually become what they now are by the suc- 
cessive introduction of specific forms according to 
a preordained plan which is well expressed by the 
formal laws of evolution. But species are without 
transition forms. TheT/ come in suddenly, remain 
unchanged while they continue, and finally pass 
out suddenly, so far as specific characters are con- 
cerned. Now species come in their places by 
direct act of creation, by substitution, not by trans- 
mutation." This, then, is the last intrenchment. 
Can we give any good evidence of gradual forma- 
tion of species ? I believe we can. 

First, then, it is admitted that we can easily 
make varieties and races artificially. We will not 
describe the process. We are all familiar with the 
result, viz., the varieties of domestic animals and of 
useful and ornamental plants ; the extremely dif- 
ferent breeds of horses, cattle, sheep, dogs, pigeons, 
etc. ; of wheat, cabbages, turnips ; of roses, dahlias, 
etc. No one will doubt that the extreme varieties 
of any of these, say greyhound and pug, if wild, 
would be called distinct species, or even distinct 
genera. We do not call them so, for two reasons : 
first, because we see them made ; and second, 
because we find all intermediate between them ; 
and the usual definition of species is that they can- 



176 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

not be made, and they have no intermediate links. 
Thus, then, the question is narrowed down to wild 
species. They say, " We take our stand on these." 
" We defy you to show gradual formation with 
intermediate links." 

Now, in fact, by diligent search such intermedi- 
ate links between well-recognized species have been 
found in some cases, especially in birds, on account 
of their great power of dispersal. Certain forms 
have long been known from widely separated re- 
gions, and universally regarded as distinct species, 
as distinct as any. Then by minute examination 
of intermediate regions, a complete series of inter- 
mediate forms has been picked up. This has oc- 
curred not only in one case but in many cases, 
and not in birds only but in many other classes. 
Examples increase with our increasing knowl- 
edge.^ The only answer to such evidence is that 
these are not true species. Now see the fallacy 
lurking here. They define species as ultimate 
elements of taxonomy, as distinct and without 
intermediate links, and then require us to find 
such intermediate links ; and, finally, when with 
infinite pains some such links are found, they say : 
" Oh ! I see ; we were mistaken ; they are only va- 
rieties ! " If is true that naturalists, Avhen inter- 
mediate links are found, usually put all together 
as one species, but this they do purely for the sake 
of definition and description. It is freely admitted 
1 Cope, '' Science." 



GENERAL EVIDENCES. 177 

by the evolutionist that species are now usually 
distinct and without intermediate links, these 
having been destroyed in the struggle for life. 
It is also freely admitted that although intermedi- 
ate links must have existed at one time, their 
remains are rarely found. Nevertheless, in some 
cases, as already seen, we do find them still exist- 
ing. Now, we add that in some cases, where they 
no longer exist, we find them in the form of fossil 
remains. The most remarkable example of this 
is found in the gradual changes in the forms of 
planorbis in the fresh-water deposits of Steinheim, 
as shown by the admirable researches of Hyatt. 
Now, if there be any such links at all, however 
rare, then every objection to the derivative origin 
of species is removed. 

Perhaps it may be well to make bare mention of 
another kind of evidence, viz., the actual change 
of species under the eyes, by the action of change 
of environment. The different species of the 
genus Artemia (a low form of crustacean) live 
in brine-pools. By concentrating the brine of such 
a pool, one species (^A. salina) has been observed 
to change in successive generations into another 
(J.. Muhlhausenii'), and the latter back again to 
the former by slow freshening. Again, the sire- 
don and the amblystoma have always, until re- 
cently, been regarded as not only distinct species, 
but distinct genera of amphibians. Siredon was 
supposed to be a permanent gill-breather, while 



178 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

amblystoma becomes by metamorphosis a pure air- 
breather. Now, however, it is known that the for- 
mer may change into the latter. But the most 
curious part of the life-history of these animals is 
that if water be abundant the siredon reproduces 
freely, and remains indefinitely a gill-breather; 
but if the water dries up it changes into the lung- 
breathing amblystoma. We do not give this as an 
example of change of species, for the change is 
in the individual life, and therefore in the nature 
of metamorphosis ; but as evidence of the power of 
physical conditions in modifying the development 
of organic forms and therefore of the manner in 
which gill-breathers were probably transformed 
into air-breathers. 

To sum up : 1. All inorganic forms, without 
exception, have become what we find them by 
a natural process, i.e.^ by evolution. 2. All or- 
ganic or living forms within the limits of obser- 
vation^ i.e., every living thing, has become what 
we now see by a gradual, natural process, i.e., 
by evolution. 3. All taxonomic groups, except 
species, have undoubtedly become what we now 
see them by a gradual process, following the laws , 
of evolution, and therefore presumably by a nat- 
ural process of evolution. 4. By artificial means, 
breeds, races, etc., very similar, at least in many 
respects, to species, are seen to arise by a gradual 
natural process, i.e., hy evolution. 5. In some 
instances, at least, natural species are observed to 



GENERAL EVIDENCES. 179 

pass into one another by intermediate links in 
such wise that we are forced to conclude that they 
have been formed by a natural process. 

May we not, then, safely generalize and make 
the law universal ? Is not this a sufficient ground 
for confident induction ? Even though some facts 
are still inexplicable, is that a sufficient reason for 
withholding assent to a theory which explains so 
much? In all induction we first establish a law 
provisionally from the observation of a compara- 
tively few facts, and then extend it over a multi- 
tude not included in the original induction. If 
it explains these also, the law is verified. The 
law of gravitation was first based on the observa- 
tion of a few facts, and then verified by its expla- 
nation of nearly all the facts of celestial motion. 
There are some outstanding facts of celestial 
motion still unexplained, but we do not, there- 
fore, doubt the law of gravitation. The same 
principle applied in biology ought to establish the 
law of evolution, for it also explains all the facts 
of biology as no other law can. But inductive 
evidence differs from other kinds of evidence in 
one respect, which, in fact, constitutes its strength 
to the scientific, but its weakness to the popular 
mind. It is a kind of circumstantial evidence, but 
its force does not consist in a few strong circum- 
stances easily appreciated, such as strike the popu- 
lar mind and force conviction, but rather in a 
multitude of small circumstances, each by itself 



180 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

insignificant, but all together pointing to one con- 
clusion and demanding one explanation. Such 
evidence is, indeed, overwhelming, but only to 
the mind that masters it. The evidence for the 
law of gravitation is literally the whole science of 
astronomy. So, also, the evidence for the law of 
evolution is the whole science of biology. Neither 
of these laws can be proved in a debating society, 
but only by a course of study. In the one case the 
law has been universally accepted ; not, however, 
on evidence, for there are few indeed who appre- 
ciate the evidence, but on the authority of scientific 
unanimity. In the other case there has not yet 
been time enough for the already established una- 
nimity to have its full effect. 

Thus much, we believe, will be generally ad- 
mitted as a very moderate claim. Evolution is 
certainly a legitimate induction from the facts of 
biology. But we are prepared to go much further. 
We are confident that evolution is absolutely cer- 
tain. Not, indeed, evolution as a special theory, 
Lamarckian, Darwinian, Spencerian, for these are 
all more or less successful modes of explaining evo- 
lution ; nor evolution as a school of thought with 
its following of disciples, for in this case it is still in 
the field of discussion ; but evolution as a law of der- 
ivation of forms from previous forms ; evolution as 
a law of continuity, as a universal law of becoming. 
In this sense it is not only certain, it is axiomatic. 
It is only necessary to conceive it clearly to see 



GENERAL EVIDENCES. 181 

that it is a necessary truth. This may seem para- 
doxical to some. I stop to justify it. 

Physical phenomena we all admit follow one 
another in unbroken succession, each derived from 
a preceding, and giving origin to a succeeding. 
We call this the law of causation, and say that it 
is axiomatic. We might call it a law of deriva- 
tion. So also natural forms^ organic or other, 
follow one another in continuous chain, each de- 
rived from a preceding and giving origin to a 
succeeding. We call this a law of derivation. 
We might call it a law of causation^ and say that it, 
too, is axiomatic. The origins of new phenomena 
are often obscure, even inexplicable, but we never 
think to doubt that they have a natural cause ; for 
so to doubt is to doubt the validity of reason 
and the rational constitution of nature. So also 
the origin of new organic forms may be obscure 
or even inexplicable, but we ought not on that 
account to doubt that they had a natural cause 
and came by a natural process ; for so to doubt is 
also to doubt the validity of reason and the rational 
constitution of organic nature. The law of evolu- 
tion is naught else than the scientific or, indeed, 
the rational mode of thinking about the origin of 
things in every department of nature. In a word, 
it is naught else than the law of necessary causa- 
tion applied to forms instead of phenomena. Evo- 
lution, therefore, is no longer a school of thought. 
The words evolutionism and evolutionist ought 



182 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

not any longer to be used, an}^ more than gravita- 
tionism and gravitationist ; for the law of evolution 
is as certain as the law of gravitation. Nay, it is 
far more certain. The nexus between successive 
events in time (causation) is far more certain than 
the nexus between coexistent objects in space (grav- 
itation). The former is a necessary truths the 
latter is usually classed as contingent truth. I 
have used and may continue to use the term evolu- 
tionist, but if so, it is only in deference to the views 
of many intelligent persons who do not yet see 
the certainty of the law. 

It will be seen that we regard the law of evolu- 
tion in its wider sense, viz., the derivative origin 
of all forms, organic or other, as axiomatic, and 
therefore requiring no further proof. Among 
scientific men there is no longer any discussion of 
the truth of this law, but only of the theories of the 
causes of the law. We believe that to the scien- 
tific mind there is no other rational mode of looking 
at the subject of origin of organic forms. To such 
a mind, therefore, all that follows is but the de- 
ductive application of that law in the explanation 
of the phenomena of organic nature. But it takes 
time for the popular mind to readjust itself to new 
and revolutionary truth. Many minds, even among 
the most intelligent, have not yet accepted this as 
the only rational mode of thought. Many men 
require further special proofs of the derivative ori- 
gin of organic forms. Even to those who accept 



GENERAL EVIDENCES. 183 

evolution it may be interesting to bring out a little 
more fully, though still only in outline, the two 
antagonistic views, which may be called the old 
and the new, or the natural and the supernatural, 
of the origin of new organic forms, especially 
species. 

Origin of new organic forms ; the old viev/ 
briefly stated. — According to the old-school natu- 
ralists, species are the ultimate elements of 
toxonomy: genera, families, orders, etc., may 
gradually change their character from age to 
age, by the introduction of new species ; but 
species were supposed to be substantially perma- 
nent. It was necessary to have some unit for con- 
venience of description and classification, and this 
was found to be the best because most stable. As 
in nearly all cases of beliefs, this doctrine was held 
at first somewhat loosely, as a provisional and 
convenient view, — as a good working hypothesis, 
— but gradually, under pressure of controversy, 
became more strictly formulated, and, as it were, 
hardened into a scientific dogma, especially in the 
hands of Agassiz. According to this view, the first 
pair or pairs of each specific kind originated we 
know not how, but certainly at once in its present 
form in full perfection, and, therefore, presumably 
by direct creative act of Deity; and then after- 
wards by the law of generation continued to 
produce others of the same pattern, indefinitely. 
Moreover, the first one or more pairs of each 



184 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

kind multiplied and spread abroad in every direc- 
tion, each from its own centre of origin, as far as 
physical conditions and struggle for life with other 
species would allow. This idea explains tolerably 
well the geographical distribution of species as we 
now find it. For example, species on different 
continents are widely different, because those on 
each have originated independently where we now 
find them, and spread in all directions as far as 
physical conditions would allow, but could not 
reach other continents because of the ocean bar- 
rier. That this is the only reason that they are 
not there, is shown by the fact that, if they are 
carried there, they usually do perfectly well. 
Even on the same continent, for the same reason, 
species may be very different if separated by im- 
passable barriers such as high mountain chains, or 
by climate. But whenever one group of species, 
originating in one place, comes in contact on the 
margin of their range with another group of 
species originating in another place, we see no 
evidence of transmutation of one form into 
another, but only substitution of one fully 
formed species for another equally fully formed. 
Therefore, we must conclude that physical condi- 
tions may limit the range of species, but cannot 
transmute it into another. Thus, to say the least, 
many of the facts of geographical distribution are 
well explained by this idea of creative origin in 
specific centres and subsequent permanence of 



GENERAL EVIDENCES. 185 

specific form. We say many^ but not all of the 
facts can be thus explained. 

But the main question is not of geographical 
but of geological distribution ; not distribution in 
space, but succession in time. Species do not 
continue forever. On the contrary, they have 
changed many times in the course of geological 
history. As conditions become unfavorable, spe- 
cies die out or become extinct, and others take 
their place and carry forward the life and devel- 
opment of the organic kingdom. Now, how do 
they change ? According to this school of thought, 
here also, as in geographical distribution, they are 
not transmitted but replaced; here also physical 
condition may destroy a species, but cannot trans- 
form it into another. As species die out, others 
are created at once, out of hand and fully formed, 
in their place ; but in accordance with a pre- 
ordained plan consistently carried out and working 
ever toward higher and higher conditions. Thus 
life is continued on the earth by the alternation of 
supernatural and natural processes; by the alter- 
nate use of direct and indirect action of Deity : 
direct in the introduction of first pairs, indirect 
through the natural process of reproduction in the 
continuance and multiplication of the species. 
Each species is made according to a pattern in the 
divine mind, on a sort of intellectual die, and 
then continues to reproduce a succession of indi- 
viduals of the same pattern as if struck from the 



186 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

same die until the die is broken or worn out. 
Another die is made, of another pattern, and 
individuals are struck from this ; and so on, 
throughout the whole geological history of the 
organic kingdom. Only, we must add that the 
successive dies are made to follow one another 
according to a plan which is expressed by the 
three laws already given. Thus the origin of 
individuals is natural, the origin of species super- 
natural ; the making of dies is supernatural, the 
coinage is natural. 

We have stated this view in a too extreme form 
in order to make it clearer. We now, therefore, 
proceed to qualify somewhat. Specific types were 
held by writers of this school of thought to be 
sub sta7iti ally but not absolutely unchangeable. 
Successive individuals of the same species were 
admitted to be not exactly alike. Such slight 
differences were called varieties. It was admitted, 
indeed, that species varied, but it was believed 
that such variations in any direction were strictly 
limited in amount. A species may be compared to 
a right cylinder standing on end. As such a cyl- 
inder may be tilted slightly in one direction or 
another without overthrowing its equilibrium, the 
cylinder tending ever to right itself and return 
to its original position, so a species may be varied 
slightly in one direction or another without de- 
stroying its integrity, the species tending ever to 
return to its normal or typical form. But as the 



GENERAL EVIDENCES. 187 

cylinder, if pushed too far from its normal posi- 
tion, is overthrown, so also a species, if pressed 
too far in the way of variation from its typical 
form, is destroyed, but not changed into another 
species. As cylinders may be more or less rigid, 
depending upon the breadth of their bases, so also 
some species are more rigidly set in their typical 
form, and some are more plastic to the influences 
causing variations, but in all cases there is a 
limit to the amount of oscillation consistent with 
integrity. 

The new view briefly stated. — According to 
Darwin and all biologists of the present day spe- 
cies are variable without limit if only the causes of 
change are constant and slow enough in their 
operation, and the time long enough. A species 
must be in harmony with its environment, for this 
is the condition of its existence. Now, if the en- 
vironment change, the species must tend to change 
slowly from generation to generation, so as to re- 
adjust its relations in harmony with the changing 
environment. If the change of environment be 
slow, the readjustment may be successful, and the 
species will change gradually into another form 
so different that it will be called a different spe- 
cies, especially if the intermediate gradations be 
destroyed. If the change in the environment be 
too rapid, many species, especially the more rigid, 
will be destroyed, while the more plastic may sur- 
vive by modification. Thus, at every step in the 



188 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

evolution of the organic kingdom, some species 
have died without issue, while others have saved 
themselves by changing into new forms in har- 
mony with the new environment. Comparing to 
a growing tree, some branches overshadowed die, 
while others push on for light, forming new lateral 
buds, and dividing as they grow. By continued 
divergent change species gradually become gen- 
era, genera families, etc. Thus, varieties, species, 
genera, families, orders, classes, etc., are only dif- 
ferent degrees of differences formed all in the 
same way. Varieties are only commencing spe- 
cies, species commencing genera, and so on. 
There is no making and wearing out of dies and 
making of new ones ; the whole process is a nat- 
ural one ; the whole series is genetically connected. 
In a perfect classification varietics,^species, genera, 
families, orders, classes, etc., are only different 
degrees of blood kinship. 

So much may be regarded as certain and out of 
the field of discussion among biologists of the 
present day. It is only in defining this process 
more accurately, and especially in the theory of the 
causes ov factors of evolution, that there are still 
difference and discussion. Let me again impress 
upon the reader that all the doubt and discussion 
above referred to is entirely aside from the truth 
of evolution itself, concerning which there is no 
difference of opinion among thinkers.^ 

1 Le Conte, " Evolution and its Relation to Religious Thought." 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 189 



CHAPTER IV. 

OBJECTIONS TO THE CHEIST-PEINCIPLE THEORY 
ANSWEEED. 

Now, it will doubtless be objected to this view 
that it is naught else than pure pantheism ; that it 
destroys completely the personality of Deity, and 
with it all our hopes of communion with him, and 
all our aspirations of love and worship toward him ; 
that, according to this view, God becomes only the 
soul or animating principle of nature, i.e.^ Christ 
principle, operating everywhere but unconsciously 
like the vital principle of an organism ; that the 
whole cosmos becomes in fact a great organism 
developing under the operation of resident force, 
i.e.^ divine energy, according to necessary law, only 
that we apotheosize this omnipresent force (Christ 
principle) and call it God. Furthermore, it may 
be said that, according to this view, this omni- 
present unconscious energy (Christ principle) in- 
dividuates itself by necessary law of evolution 
more and more until it reaches, for the first time in 
a Christ-man, spirit consciousness and immortality, 
and thus that a Christ-man himself is the only 
spirit-conscious immortal being in existence, and 



190 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

therefore the only being worthy of reverence and 
worship. Thus this view leadb to self-worship. 

I admit that, following up this scientific line of 
thought by the ijitellect alone, we are carried 
strongly in the direction of pantheism. But there 
is nothing strange or exceptional in this. In all 
the deepest questions single lines of thought in- 
evitably carry us to extreme one-sided views. 
This seems to be the necessary result of the essen- 
tially twofold nature of man, spirit consciousness 
in a material body, the relation between which is 
and must ever be inscrutable. On this account 
there is and must be a fundamental antithesis in 
human philosophy, i.e., two lines of thought, the 
material and spiritual, which lead to two apparently 
irreconcilable views. A rational philosophy or 
religion, whenever we are able to reach such, is 
always found in a higher and more comprehensive 
view which includes, combines, and reconciles two 
one-sided, partial, and mutually excluding views. 
But spirit and matter, or mind and brain, or God 
and nature, is the fundamental antithesis which 
underlies and is the cause of all lesser antitheses. 
This antithesis, therefore, is absolutely fundamen- 
tal, and therefore forever irreconcilable. We must 
accept both sides, even though we cannot clearly 
perceive the nature of their relation. We must be 
content with compromise where we cannot effect 
complete reconciliation. We must frankly acknowl- 
edge that the antagonism is apparent only, and the 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 191 

result of the limitation of our faculties, and believe 
if we can only rise to a high enough point of view 
of the Christ principle, like all other antitheses, 
this also would disappear in a rational religion. 

Now to apply the Christ principle. No one, we 
admit, can form a clear conception of how imman- 
ence of Deity is consistent with personality, and 
yet we must accept both, because we are irresisti- 
bly led to each of these by different lines of thought. 
Science, following one line of thought, uncorrected 
by a wider philosophy, is naturally led toward one 
extreme, pantheistic immanence ; the devout wor- 
shipper, following the wants of his religious nature, 
IS naturally led toward another extreme of anthro- 
pomorphic personality ; while the Christ-man, 
standing on the Christ plane and recognizing his 
own spirit consciousness as the completed psychic 
evolution, recognizes the Christ principle in nature 
as immanence of Deity, z.e., that part of Deity im- 
manent in nature. Hence, the Christ-principle 
theory is the only rational view, and reconciles both 
the other views of immanence and personality, i.e., 
immanence without pantheism, and personality 
without anthropomorphism. We have already 
seen how, following the scientific line of thought, 
we are logically driven to immanence. We wish 
now to show how, following the Christ-principle 
line of thought, we are as logically driven to per- 
sonality. 

1. In the gradual individuation of the universal 



192 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

divine energy, i.e.^ Christ principle, there must of 
course be a corresponding growth of a kind of in- 
dependent self -activity which reaches completeness 
in a Christ-man, and in fact constitutes what we 
call spirit individuality, spirit consciousness, im- 
mortality. The exact nature of the relation of 
Deity to this gradually individuated portion I 
define as son, or son of man and son of God. But 
how this idea of partial spirit activity comports 
with the absoluteness of Deity we cannot clearly 
understand. But this fact need not specially dis- 
turb us hei'e ; for this is only one branch of the 
wider question of the freedom of man in relation 
to necessary law in nature. 

We have already shown that the Christ principle 
is that part of Deity immanent in nature ; while 
personality of Deity is that part, so to speak, not 
included in the Christ principle, but behind nature. 
If the brain of a living, thinking man were exposed 
to the scrutiny of an outside observer with abso- 
lute perfect senses, all that he would or could pos- 
sibly see would be molecular motions, physical and 
chemical ; while the subject himself, the thinking 
self-conscious soul, would experience and observe 
by introspection only consciousness, thought, emo- 
tion, etc. : on the outside^ only physical phenom- 
ena; on the inside^ only psychical phenomena. 
Now, must not the same he necessarily true of nature 
also ? Viewed from the outside by the scientific 
observer, nothing is seen, nothing can be seen, there 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 198 

is nothing else to be seen, but motions, material 
phenomena ; but behind these, on the other side, 
on the inside^ must not there be in this case also 
psychical phenomena, consciousness, thought, will ; 
in a word, personality f In the only place where 
we do get behind physical phenomena, viz., in the 
brain, we find psychical phenomena. Are we not 
justified, then, in concluding that in all cases 
the psychical lies behind the physical ? The human 
brain is a wonderful instrument, by means of which, 
in some inscrutable way, viz., in our own experience 
of spirit consciousness, we do get behind, on the 
other side, on the inside of some material phenom- 
ena, and in so far become partakers of the divine 
nature. But behind other phenomena of nature 
we may never hope to penetrate either by observa- 
tion or experience, but only in dim way by highest 
reason. Science, even in the case of the brain, 
cannot pass from the one kind of phenomena to the 
other. If she would study the inside she must 
abandon the outside^ she must abandon the micro- 
scope and take to introspection. If she would study 
the phenomena of the Christ plane, she must leave 
the lower and climb up and stand on the Christ 
plane. If this be true of the brain, where the two 
kinds of phenomena are brought so close together, 
how much more is it true of the phenomena of the 
cosmos. We can hope only by spirit consciousness 
to pass behind the veil. We must abandon the 
methods of science and attain it, if at all, in some 



194 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

other way, viz., througli our spirit organism, spirit 
individuality, spirit consciousness. Not the natural 
sight but the spiritual sight shall see God in nature. 

In the light of what is said above, spirit is 
either all or none ; so also mechanics is all or none. 
It is all spirit through mechanics. It is all mechanics 
from the outside^ and it is all spirit from the inside. 
For science it is all mechanics ; for religion it is 
all spirit. I believe that the Christ-principle view, 
when rightly apprehended, will reconcile these two 
opposite views. In one form of evolution only, 
viz., in human progress, is spirit one of the factors 
of evolution. But to think and speak thus of God 
in relation to nature is to place him on the human 
plane. 

Thus, then, we see that our own spirit-conscious 
personality behind brain phenomena compels us to 
accept spirit consciousness, will, thought, person- 
ality behind nature. Now I assert that once get 
this abstract idea in the mind, and by a necessary 
law of thought it gradually expands without limit, 
and eventually reaches the form of infinite spirit 
consciousness, will, thought, etc., and therefore of 
an infinite person. This law of indefinite expansion 
may be illustrated by the ideas of space and time. 
The animal, and indeed the infant, understands 
space and time only in their relation to itself, but 
has not yet abstracted these from their contents. 
This comes only with the birth of self-conscious 
personality. But so soon as the abstract idea of 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 195 

space is acquired, by a necessary law of mental 
activity it expands without limit, and finally be- 
comes the idea of infinite space. Similarly, so 
soon as the idea of time as abstracted from its 
contents is conceived, it inevitably expands with- 
out limit and grows into the idea of infinite time. 
So it is precisely with the idea of self-conscious 
personality. The animal or the very young child 
is indeed conscious of its body and of external 
objects in their mutual relation, but not of self as 
abstracted from its contents. The animal never 
attains it, the child does. Again, the human soul 
is indeed conscious of its body and of external 
objects in their mutual relations, but not of spirit- 
self until the soul (spirit embryo) comes to birth, 
then it attains spirit consciousness over and above 
self-consciousness. Now, so soon as this idea of 
spirit-conscious personality, of spirit entity under- 
lying material phenomena, appears, by a neces- 
sary law of mental activity it expands without 
limit, and inevitably reaches the idea of an infinite 
self, an infinite person, God, behind the phenomena 
of nature. 

But some will object that this idea of infinite 
personality is inconceivable. True enough ; but 
the opposite is far more inconceivable. The ideas of 
infinite space and infinite time are also inconceiv- 
able, yet we must accept them, because the idea of 
all space or all time being limited is still more 
inconceivable ; for if we think of space or time as 



196 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

limited, immediately there comes the question, 
" What is there beyond the limit ? " There is, 
therefore, this wide difference between these two 
inconceivables : the one is so only in the sense of 
transcending the power of our mind, but the other 
is unthinkable, self -contradictory, absurd. So also 
is it with self-conscious personality. The idea of 
an infinite self, i.e.^ God, is indeed inconceivable, 
but only in the sense of transcending our power of 
comprehension ; but the idea of the consciousness 
behind the cosmos as being limited or finite is 
more than inconceivable ; it is unthinkable, self- 
contradictory, absurd ; for immediately comes the 
question, "What is there beyond which limits it?" 
To the Greek mind Zeus was limited ; therefore of 
necessity came also the idea of fate superior to 
and limiting Zeus himself. To them, therefore, 
fate was the real God, the absolute. 

2. Cause in nature. — We have thus far spoken 
only or principally of spirit consciousness ; but the 
same precisely is true of another essential attribute 
of personality, viz., free will. Every one admits 
causative force or forces, which I denominate 
Christ principle, operating in nature. Science 
has shown that all the different kinds of force are 
but different forms of one omnipresent energy^ which 
I call different planes of the Christ principle. Thus 
it will be seen that force is a more convenient 
word than Christ principle ; but the real meaning 
of force should always be borne in mind. Now, 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED, 19T 

looking abroad on nature from the outside, this 
omnipresent energy (Christ principle) seems to 
modern science as simply resident, inherent in mat- 
ter itself, and therefore as operating unconsciously 
and by necessity. But the question occurs, " Where 
did we get the idea of force, Christ principle, en- 
ergy, causation? ^^ I answer unhesitatingly: We 
get it not from without by observation of nature, 
but from within through consciousness ; not from 
the outside view, but from the inside view of phe- 
nomena. We cannot conceive of phenomena with- 
out force, of effect without cause, because we are 
intensely conscious of being ourselves through our 
wills an active cause of external phenomena. The 
clear consciousness of essential energy, of causa- 
tive force within, the certainty that we ourselves, 
through our wills and by the conscious exertion of 
force, determine changes in the external world, 
compels us to attribute all changes to causative 
force of some kind, and naturally enough, until the 
interference of science, to a personal will like our 
own. Thus by a necessary law we project our in- 
ternal states into external nature. 

But see now the steps of evolution underlying 
religion. At first, ^.e., in the uncultured races, and 
also in childhood, external forces take the form of 
a personal will like our own residing in each object^ 
and controlling its phenomena as our wills control 
our bodily movements (fetichism). Then, as cul- 
ture advances, it takes next the form of several 



198 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

personal wills controlling each the phenomena of 
a different department of nature (polytheism). 
Finally, in the higher stage of culture, it takes the 
form of one personal will controlling the phenom- 
ena of the whole cosmos (monotheism). To the 
religious but unscientific mind in all these stages 
the personal will is anthropomorphic. But we 
have seen how anthropomorphism has been driven 
by science from one department after another, until 
now at last by evolution it is driven out of nature 
entirely, and to those following this line of thought 
alone, the phenomena of nature are regulated to 
forces inherent in matter, and operating by laws 
necessary and fatal. And not only so, but material 
forces are made to invade even the realm of con- 
sciousness and reduce this also to material laws. 
Thus the savage ejects his own conscious personal 
will into every separate object of nature ; the mod- 
ern materialist mjects material forces into the realm 
of consciousness. But, as already seen, a rational 
philosophy admits these two antithetic views, and 
strives to combine and reconcile them. This rec- 
onciliation, so far as it is possible for us, is found 
in the Christ-principle view, z.e., a personal will 
immanent in nature and behind nature, and deter- 
mining directly all its phenomena — a process of 
divine incarnation. 

Thus it is evident that the idea of a causal nexus 
between successive phenomena is a primary con- 
ception, and therefore ineradicable and certain. 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED, 199 

Even from the purest evolution point of view it 
must be true ; for, if man's mind grew out of the 
forces of nature, this idea must represent a fact in 
nature. Again, if man's spirit individuality grew 
out of the human soul, this idea must represent a 
fact in the spiritual world ; a fact upon which all 
other spiritual facts are based. Also, analysis 
shows that all causative force originates in will. 
Lastly, culture and reason, by a necessary law of 
expansion, carry us Upward to the conception of 
one infinite sustaining and creative will. Again, 
our spiritual perceptions carry us upward to the 
conception of the Christ principle or universal law 
of incarnation. Science may object but cannot 
destroy this idea. Evolution, which was supposed 
by some to have destroyed forever the conception 
of one infinite and sustaining will, has only tem- 
porarily obscured it in the minds of the unreflect- 
ing, by the supposed identity of evolution and 
materialism. From this temporary eclipse it now 
emerges with still greater clearness and far greater 
nobleness. For, observe : all the effects known to 
us in nature are finite ; therefore a personal will 
which determines these separately by successive 
acts, as we do, must also be finite like ourselves. 
But a will which by one eternal act ever doing, 
never done, determines the evolution, the incarna- 
tion, and the sustentation of an infinite cosmos, 
must itself be infinite. Thus only in the doctrine 
of universal evolution and universal incarnation 



200 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

do we rise to a just conception of God as an 
infinite cause. 

As the idea of cause and force is related to will, 
so precisely is the idea of design related to thought. 
We get this also, not from without, but from within. 
Adaptation of means to ends is in our experience 
the result of thought, and we cannot conceive it 
to result otherwise. The effect of science cannot be 
to destroy this primary conception, which indeed, 
like all primary conceptions, is ineradicable and al- 
ready more certain than anything can be made by 
proof, but only to exalt and purify our conception 
of the designer. What science, and especially the 
Christ-principle theory, destroys, therefore, is not 
the idea of design, but only our low anthropomor- 
phic notion of the mode of working of the designer. 

Precisely the same change takes place here 
under the influence of science as has taken place 
in all our notions concerning God. The soul of 
the uncultured savage sees a separate god in every 
object. As his soul advances by culture, his gods 
become fewer and nobler, until, in the most ad- 
vanced state, man's soul recognizes but one infinite 
God, the incarnation, the creator and sustainer of 
all. In accordance with the idea of the Christ 
principle, i.e.^ universal incarnation, God is still in 
every phenomena, but no longer as a separate God, 
but only as the separate manifestation of the 
One. In comparing the soul of the savage with 
the soul of the cultivated man we may get a clear 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 201 

idea of psychic evolution or growth of soul. Thus 
culture takes away our gods, but only to compel 
growth of soul by making us seek him in nobler 
forms until the soul reaches the idea of the only 
true God. But even after the conception of the 
one God is reached, how many seem to regard him 
as altogether such a one as ourselves. But science 
shows us that his ways are not like our ways, nor 
his ends as our ends. Thus science, more than all 
other kinds of culture, simplifies while it in- 
finitely ennobles and purifies our conceptions of 
Deity. 

Again, the same change takes place in our 
sense of mystery. I suppose most people im- 
agine that it is the special mission of science 
to destroy all mystery. Many seem to think 
that superstition, or even religion, is insepa- 
rably connected with ignorance and mystery, and 
all must disappear together before the light of 
science. But not so. There is only a gradual pro- 
gressive change, an evolution in the form of mys- 
tery as well as in the form of religion. To the 
savage everything is a separate mystery. The 
function of science is, indeed, to destroy these 
separate mysteries by explaining them ; but in 
doing so it only reduces them to fewer and grander 
mysteries, and these again to still fewer and 
grander, until, in an ideally perfect science, all 
separate and partial mysteries are swallowed up in 
the one all-embracing infinite mystery the mystery 



202 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

of existence. There is still mystery in each 
object, but no longer a separate mystery, only a 
separate manifestation of the one overwhelming 
mystery. 

Or again, the same change occurs in our ideas of 
creation. At first every object is a separate crea- 
tion, a manufacture. With advancing science 
these separate creative acts become fewer and 
nobler, until now, at last, in evolution, all are em- 
braced and swallowed up in one eternal act of 
creation, a never-ceasing procession of divine 
energy passing into matter and form. Every 
object is still a creation, but not a separate crea- 
tion, only a separate manifestation of the one con- 
tinuous creative act. 

Again, and finally, the same change occurs 
in our idea of incarnation^ at first a separate 
incarnation, a manufacture of the Christ, viz., 
Jesus. But with the advance of science and the 
Christ-principle view this separate incarnation 
act becomes broader and nobler, until now, at last, 
in the universal law of incarnation the one incarna- 
tion is embraced and swallowed up in one eternal 
act of incarnation — a never-ceasing procession of 
divine energy passing into matter and form. 
Every object is an incarnation, but not a separate 
incarnation — only a separate manifestation of 
the one continuous incarnation act, or what in 
the language of religion is called Holy Ghost. 
Hence, in the blending of religion and science we 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 203 

have divine energy in nature, or Christ princi- 
ple, as the Word, the incarnation act as the 
Holy Ghost, the outcome or offspring — Son, or 
Son of man ; a Christ-man, one in whom psychic 
evolution is complete or has reached its goal. 

Now, precisely the same change must take place 
in our conception of design in nature. To the 
uncultured there is a distinct and separate de- 
sign in every separate work of nature. But as 
science advances, all these distinct, separate, 
petty, man-like designs are merged into fewer and 
grander designs, until finally, in the Christ princi- 
ple, at last we reach the conception of one infinite, 
all-embracing design, stretching across infinite 
space, and continuing unchanged through infi- 
nite time, which includes and predetermines and 
absorbs every possible separate design. There is 
still design in everything, but no longer a sep- 
arate design, only a separate manifestation of 
the one infinite design, tending toward the eternal 
goal, spirit individuality, immortality. 

Thus, then, our own spirit individuality and 
self-consciousness, will, and thought give rise, 
necessarily, to the conception of an infinite spirit 
individuality and self-consciousness, will, and 
thought — z.e., God. The necessity to believe in 
self-conscious spirit behind bodily phenomena 
compels us to believe also in an infinite self-con- 
scious spirit behind cosmic phenomena. Looking 
at the operations of this ever-active spirit, whether 



204 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

in the one case or the other, from the outside^ it 
looks like unconscious energy inherent in matter 
itself, and therefore like necessity or fate. But 
looked at from the inside, in the one case we 
perceive only self-conscious free activity of spirit. 
Therefore we are compelled to acknowledge in the 
other case, also, the same source of all activity, 
the same cause of all phenomena. We are com- 
pelled to acknowledge an infinite immanent Deity 
behind phenomena, but manifested to us on the 
outside as an all-pervasive energy. But some 
portion of this all-pervasive energy again individ- 
uates itself more and more, and therefore acquires 
more and more a kind of independent self-activity 
in man as self-consciousness and free will. But 
this is not all: it again individuates itself and 
acquires more and more a kind of spirit individ- 
uality and spirit consciousness which reaches its 
completeness in a Christ-man, the goal of psychic 
evolution. We said, "a kind of independent self- 
activity." How this comports with the absolute- 
ness of God we cannot understand, any more than 
we can understand how it comports with in- 
variable law in nature. We simply accept them 
both as primary truths, even though we can never 
hope to reconcile them completely, because we 
cannot understand the exact nature of the relation 
of spirit to matter. We cannot look at the outside 
and the inside at the same time. If we could 
understand the relation of psychical phenomena to 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 205 

brain changes, then might we hope to understand 
far more perfectly than now the relation of God 
to nature, But as in the one case, the brain, 
although we cannot understand the nature of the 
relation, yet we are sure of the intimacy of the 
connection of the two series, psychical and phys- 
ical, term for term ; so in the other case, the 
cosmos, although we cannot understand the exact 
nature., we are sure of the intimacy of the connec- 
tion, term for term, — every material phenomenon 
and event with a corresponding psychical phe- 
nomenon as its cause. 

Evolution is progression in life or divine energy, 
and not in matter. All the great steps are differ- 
ent qualities of attained internal character — purely 
psychical. Matter never progresses ; which proves 
that it is only a form of expression. The atoms 
which form the body of a human being are the 
same that have made up the body of a plant or 
animal. The progression is in the immaterial divine 
energy. It is important that this great distinction 
be preserved, for thereby the sophistry of material- 
ism is exposed. Every kind of life., i.e., divine 
energy, grows. For the individual and the race 
life is becoming higher, broader, richer, diviner; 
and this law of progress — evolution of force or 
psychic evolution — is eternal. 



206 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 



CHAPTER V. 

PSYCHIC EVOLUTION AND THE PROBLEM OF 
EVIL. 

It is only the light of eternal truth that can 
dissipate error : and it matters not through what 
medium it may shine. The Christ theory attacks 
errors rather than persons, opinions rather than 
vices. Those holding and conforming to the old 
view, that when the signal moment, predestined 
from all eternity, was come, the Deity arose in his 
might, and with a word created the world ; that 
no preparatory measures were required ; no long 
circuit of means was employed ; " he spake, and 
it was done ; he commanded, and it stood fast " — 
are not false in a few particulars, authors of a few 
errors, but false in all particulars. Their every 
truth is not quite true. Their two is not the real 
two, their four not the real four ; so that every 
word they say chagrins us and Ave know not where 
to begin to set them right. For instance, take the 
missionary text, " For God so loved the world that 
he gave his only begotten Son ; that whosoever be- 
lieveth in him might not perish, but have everlast- 
ing life." If in the new view it can be shown 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL. 207 

that Jesus is not the only son of God, then the 
text loses its meaning. 

The Christ theory holds that Jesus is not the 
only son of God : but that every one in whom 
spirit or psychic life comes to birth is a son of 
God, and that he has henceforward within himself 
individual immortal life, everlasting life ; whereas 
the old theory holds that immortal life is the 
reward of faith in Jesus or obtained through faith 
in Jesus. The Christ theory holds that spirit or 
psychic life is the outcome or product of psychic 
evolution, the completed evolution of the psychic 
or Christ principle, i.e.., the completed evolution of 
divine energy incarnate in nature ; unconscious 
and involuntary in its earlier stages of evolution, 
but conscious and voluntary in its last stage. The 
problem of evil has tasked the power and baffled 
the skill of the greatest thinkers in every age. Its 
complete solution is probably impossible in the 
present state of science. Yet I cannot doubt that 
on this, as on every important question relating 
to man, the theorj^ of psychic evolution, or Christ 
theory, will throw new and important light. 

If the derivative origin of spirit be true, and es- 
pecially if the spirit in man be indeed a product of 
psychic evolution, then what we call evil is not 
a unique phenomenon confined to man and the 
result of an accident, but must be a great fact 
pervading all nature and a part of its very consti- 
tution. It must have existed in all time in differ- 



208 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

ent forms, and subject like all else to the law of 
evolution. 

1. Psychic evolution in the animal kingdom. — 
The necessary condition of psychic evolution of 
the organic kingdom is a struggle for life — a con- 
flict on every side with a seemingly inimical envi- 
ronment, and a survival of only the strongest, the 
swiftest, or the most cunning ; in a word, the fit- 
test. Now, suppose the course of psychic evolu- 
tion finished in the introduction of man, and from 
this vantage-ground we look back over the course 
and consider its result. Shall we call that evil 
which was the necessary condition of the progres- 
sive psychic elevation which culminated so glori- 
ously ? Evil doubtless it seemed to the individual, 
struggling animal, but is this worthy to be weighed 
in comparison with the psychic evolution of the 
whole organic kingdom until it culminated in man? 
Is it not rather a good in disguise ? 

2. Psychic evolution in relation to man. — But 
psychic evolution, culminating in man, was imme- 
diately transferred to a higher plane ; uncon- 
scious psychic evolution is transformed, according 
to necessary law on the rational plane, to conscious 
voluntary progress toward a recognized goal, and 
according to 2^ freer law. But in this transforma- 
tion the fundamental conditions of psychic evolu- 
tion do not change. Man on the rational-life 
plane also is surrounded on every side with what 
at first seems to him an evil environment^ against 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL. 209 

whicli he must ever struggle or perish, — heat and 
cold, tempest and flood, savage beasts and still 
more savage men. What is the remedy, the only- 
conceivable remedy? Knowledge of the laws of 
nature, and thereby acquisition of power over 
nature. But increasing knowledge and power are 
equivalent to progressive psychic elevation in the 
scale of psychical being. This conflict with what 
seems an evil environment is, therefore, the neces- 
sary condition of such psychic elevation. It is 
not too much to say that, without this condition, 
except for this necessity for struggle., man could 
never have emerged out of animality into human- 
ity, or, having thus emerged, would never have 
risen above the lowest possible stage. Now sup- 
pose, again, this ideal to have been attained ; sup- 
pose knowledge of physical laws and power over 
physical forces to be complete ; suppose physical 
nature completely subdued, put beneath our feet, 
and subject to our will, and, from the intellectual 
position thus attained, we look back over the whole 
ground and consider the result, shall that be called 
evil which was obviously the necessary condition 
for attaining our then elevated position ? Evil it 
doubtless seemed to the individuals who fell, and 
still seems to us who now suffer by the way in the 
conflict. But is physical discomfort, or even 
physical death of the individual, to be weighed in 
comparison with the psychical elevation of the 
individual, and especially of the race ? Evidently, 



210 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

then, physical evil, even in the case of man, is only 
seeming evil, but real good. 

Again, when man has reached the psychic or 
Christ plane, i.e.^ when the psychic or Christ em- 
bryo has come to birth, even in this psychical 
transformation the fundamental conditions of psy- 
chic evolution do not change. Man on the Christ 
plane is still surrounded on every side with what 
at first seems to him an evil environment, against 
which he must ever struggle or perish. The con- 
dition only is changed; the struggle now is from 
within his psychical being, and is a conscious vol- 
untary psychic progress toward a recognized goal. 
Evil environment now takes the form of a hand- 
to-hand struggle with spiritual ignorance ; what he 
thought was wisdom, seen from a psychical stand- 
point is " foolishness." Now begins the struggle 
of the psychic or Christ life within him to come 
forth of him, — and come it will in one form or 
another, — and the weak intellect begins a mighty 
struggle with language with which to clothe and 
bring forth the psychic conceptions, ideas. Ac- 
cording to necessary law, the obligation to speak or 
publish psychic conceptions is laid upon the psy- 
chic or Christ individual, and there is no escape. 
How else could a knowledge of the psychic king- 
dom — kingdom of God — enter the world ? Paul 
voiced or substantiated this fact when he said, 
"Woe is me if I preach not the gospel." What 
is the remedy, the only conceivable remedy, for 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL, 211 

spiritual ignorance? Knowledge of psychic life, 
and thereby acquisition of power over ignorance. 
But increasing spiritual knowledge and power on 
the Christ plane are equivalent to progressive 
psychic elevation in the scale of psychical being. 
This conflict with what seems an evil environ- 
ment, i.e.^ ignorance, is, therefore, the necessary 
condition of such elevation. It is not too much 
to say that, without this condition, except for this 
necessity, man could never have emerged out of 
the mass of humanity into psychicality, i.e.^ the 
psychic or Christ plane, or, having thus emerged, 
would never have risen above the lowest possible 
stage. Now suppose, again, this ideal psychic or 
Christ life to have been attained ; suppose knowl- 
edge of psychical laws or psychic evolution to be 
complete, and Christology, the science of psychic 
life, to have taken its place among the sciences, 
and thus from the psychic piano and high intel- 
lectual position thus attained we look back over 
the whole ground and consider the result, shall 
that be called evil which was obviously the neces- 
sary condition for attaining our then elevated posi- 
tion ? Evil it doubtless seemed to the individuals 
who fell, and still more to us who suffer by the 
way in the conflict; but is psychical discomfort, 
or even spiritual death — embryonic stage on the 
lower plane — to be weighed in comparison with 
the psychic life or psychical elevation of the indi- 
vidual, and especially of the race ? 



212 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

May we not, then, confidently generalize? May 
we not say that all physical evil is good in its 
general effect, that every law of nature is benefi- 
cent in its general operation, and if sometimes evil 
in its specific operation, is so only through our 
ignorance. Evil is divine energy on a low plane. 



PART III. 

MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE. 



CHAPTER I. 

man's place in nature as affected by the 
copeenican theoey. 

" When we study the Divine Comedy of Dante, 
that wonderful book wherein all the knowledge 
and speculations, all the sorrows and yearnings 
of the far-off Middle Ages are enshrined in the 
glory of imperishable verse, we are brought face 
to face with a theory of the world and with ways 
of reasoning about the facts of nature which seem 
strange to us to-day, but from the influence of 
which we are not yet, and doubtless never shall 
be, wholly freed. A cosmology grotesque enough 
in the light of later knowledge, yet wrought out 
no less carefully than the physical theories of 
Lucretius, is employed in the service of a theology 
cumbrous in its obsolete details, but resting upon 
fundamental truths which mankind can never 
safely lose sight of. In the view of Dante and of 
that phase of human culture which found in him 
its clearest and sweetest voice, this earth, the fair 
home of man, was placed in the centre of a uni- 
verse wherein all things were ordained for his sole 
215 



216 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

behoof : the sun to give him light and warmth, the 
stars in their courses to preside over his strangely 
checkered destinies, the winds to blow, the floods 
to rise, or the fiend of pestilence to stalk abroad 
over the land, — all for the blessing, or the warn- 
ing, or the chiding, of the chief among God's 
creatures, man. 

" Upon some such conception as this, indeed, 
all theology would seem naturally to rest. Once 
dethrone humanity, regard it as a mere local 
incident in an endless and aimless series of cosmi- 
cal changes, and you arrive at a doctrine which, 
under whatever specious name it may be veiled, 
is at bottom neither more nor less than atheism. 
On its metaphysical side atheism is the denial 
of anything psychical in the universe outside of 
human consciousness ; and it is almost insepara- 
bly associated with the materialistic interpretation 
of human consciousness as the ephemeral result 
of a fleeting collocation of particles of matter. 
Viewed upon this side, it is easy to show that 
atheism is very bad metaphysics, while the mate- 
rialism which goes with it is utterly condemned 
by modern science. 

" But our feeling toward atheism goes much 
deeper than the mere recognition of it as philo- 
sophically untrue. We are wont to look upon 
atheism with unspeakable horror and loathing. 
Our moral sense revolts against it no less than 
our intelligence ; and this is because, on its prac- 



MAN AND COPERNICAN THEORY. 217 

tical side, atheism would remove humanity from 
its peculiar position in the world, and make it 
cast in its lot with the grass that withers and the 
beasts that perish ; and thus the rich and varied 
life of the universe, in all the ages of its won- 
drous duration, becomes deprived of any such 
element of purpose as can make it intelligible to 
us or appeal to our moral sympathies and religious 
aspirations. 

" And yet the first result of some of the grandest 
and most irrefragable truths of modern science, 
when newly discovered and dimly comprehended, 
has been to make it appear that humanity must 
be rudely unseated from its throne in the world 
and made to occupy an utterly subordinate and 
trivial position ; and it is because of this mistaken 
view of their import that the Church has so often 
and so bitterly opposed the teaching of such 
truths. 

" With the advent of the Copernican astronomy 
the funnel-shaped Inferno, the steep mountain of 
Purgatory crowned with its terrestrial paradise, 
and those concentric spheres of Heaven wherein 
beatified saints held weird and subtle converse, 
all went their way to the limbo prepared for the 
childlike fancies of untaught minds, whither 
Hades and Valhalla had gone before them. 

" In our day it is hard to realize the startling 
effect of the discovery that man does not dwell 
at the centre of things, but is the denizen of an 



218 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

obscure and tiny speck of cosmical matter quite 
invisible amid the innumerable throng of flaming 
suns that make up our galaxy. To the contem- 
poraries of Copernicus the new theory seemed 
to strike at the very foundations of Christian 
theology. 

" In a universe where so much had been made 
without discernible reference to man, what became 
of that elaborate scheme of salvation which seemed 
to rest upon the assumption that the career of hu- 
manity was the sole object of God's creative fore- 
thought and fostering care ? When we bear this 
in mind we see how natural and inevitable it was 
that the Church should persecute such men as Gali- 
leo and Bruno. At the same time it is instructive 
to observe that, while the Copernican astronomy 
has become firmly established in spite of priestly 
opposition, the foundations of Christian theology 
have not been shaken thereby. It is not that the 
question which once so sorely puzzled men has 
ever been settled, but that it has been outgrown. 

" The speculative necessity for man's occupying 
the largest and most central spot in the universe 
is no longer felt. It is recognized as a primitive 
and childish notion. With our larger knowledge 
we see that these vast and fiery suns are after all 
but the Titan-like servants of the little planets 
which they bear with them in their flight through 
the abysses of space. Out from the awful gaseous 
turmoil of the central mass dart those ceaseless 



MAN AND COPERNICAN THEORY. 219 

waves of gentle radiance that, when caught upon 
the surface of whirling worlds like ours, bring 
forth the endlessly varied forms and the endlessly 
complex movements that make up what we can 
see of life. And as when God revealed himself to 
his ancient prophet, he came not in the earthquake 
or the tempest, but in a voice that was still and 
small, so that divine spark, the soul, as it takes up 
its brief abode in this realm of fleeting phenomena, 
chooses not the central sun, where elemental forces 
forever blaze and clash, but selects an outlying 
terrestrial nook, where seeds may germinate in 
silence, and where through slow fruition the mys- 
terious forms of organic life may come to take 
shape and thrive. He who thus looks a little 
deeper into the secrets of nature than his fore- 
fathers of the sixteenth century may well smile at 
the quaint conceit that man cannot be the object 
of God's care unless he occupies an immovable 
position in the centre of the stellar universe." ^ 

1 Fiske, " Destiny of Man." 



220 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 



CHAPTER II. 

man's place in nature as affected by 
darwinism. 

" When the Copernican astronomy was finally 
established through the discoveries of Kepler and 
Newton, it might well have been pronounced the 
greatest scientific achievement of the human mind; 
but it was still more than that. It was the great- 
est revolution that had ever been effected in man's 
views of his relations to the universe in which he 
lives, and of which he is, at least during the pres- 
ent life, a part. 

" During the nineteenth century, however, a still 
greater revolution has been effected. Not only has 
Lyell enlarged our mental horizon in time as much 
as Newton enlarged it in space, but it appears that 
throughout these vast stretches of time and space 
with which we have been made acquainted there are 
sundry well marked changes going on. Certain 
definite paths of development are being pursued, 
and around us on every side we behold worlds, 
organism, and societies in divers stages of progress 
or decline. Still more, as we examine the records 
of past life upon our globe, and study the mutual 



MAN AS AFFECTED BY DARWINISM. 221 

relations of the living things that still remain, it 
appears that the higher forms of life, including 
man himself, are the modified descendants of lower 
forms. Zoologically speaking, man can no longer 
be regarded as a creature apart by himself. We 
cannot erect an order on purpose to contain him, 
as Cuvier tried to do ; we cannot even make a 
separate family for him. Man is not only a verte- 
brate, a mammal, and a primate, but he belongs, as 
a genus, to the catarrhine family of apes. And 
just as lions, leopards, and lynxes — different genera 
of the cat family — are descended from a common 
stock of carnivora, back to which we may also trace 
the pedigrees of dogs, hyenas, bears, and seals, so 
the various genera of platyrrhine and catarrhine 
apes, including man, are doubtless descended from 
a common stock of primates, back to which we may 
also trace the converging pedigrees of monkeys 
and lemurs, until their ancestry becomes indistin- 
guishable from that of rabbits and squirrels. 

" Such is the conclusion to which the scientific 
world has come within a quarter of a century from 
the publication of Mr. Darwin's ' Origin of Spe- 
cies ; ' and there is no more reason for supposing 
that this conclusion will ever be gainsaid than for 
supposing that the Copernican astronomy will 
some time be overthrown, and the concentric 
spheres of Dante's heaven reinstated in the minds 
of men. 

" It is not strange that this theory of man's origin, 



222 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

which we associate mainly with the name of Mr. 
Darwin, should be to many people very unwelcome. 
It is fast bringing about a still greater revolution 
in thought than that which was heralded by Co- 
pernicus ; and it naturally takes some time for the 
various portions of one's theory of things to become 
adjusted, one after another, to so vast and sweep- 
ing a change. From many quarters the cry goes 
up: If this be true, then man is at length cast 
down from his high position in the world. ' I will 
not be called a mammal, or the son of a mammal ! ' 
once exclaimed an acquaintance of mine who per- 
haps had been brought up by hand. Such expres- 
sions of feeling are crude, but the feeling is not 
unjustifiable. 

" It is urged that if man is physically akin to a 
baboon, as pigs are akin to horses, and cows to 
deer, then humanity can in no wise be regarded as 
occupying a peculiar place in the universe ; it 
becomes a mere incident in an endless series of 
changes ; and how can we say that the same process 
of evolution that has produced mankind may not 
by and by produce something far more perfect? 
There was a time when huge bird-like reptiles were 
the lords of creation, and after these had been 
' sealed within the iron hills ' there came successive 
dynasties of mammals ; and as the iguanodon gave 
place to the great eocene marsupials, as the mas- 
todon and the sabre-toothed lion have long since 
vanished from the scene, so may not man by and 



MAN AS AFFECTED BY DARWINISM. 223 

by disappear to make way for some higher creature, 
and so on forever ? In such case, why should we 
regard man as in any higher sense the object of 
divine care than a pig ? 

" Still stronger does the case appear when we 
remember that those countless adaptations of means 
to ends in nature, which since the time of Voltaire 
and Paley we have been accustomed to as evidences 
of creative design, have received at the hands of 
Mr. Darwin a very different interpretation. The 
lobster's powerful claw, the butterfly's gorgeous 
tints, the rose's delicious fragrance, the architectural 
instinct of the bee, the astonishing structure of the 
orchid, are no longer explained as the results of 
contrivance. 

" That simple but wasteful process of survival of 
the fittest, through which such marvellous things 
have come into being, has little about it that is 
analogous to the ingenuity of human art. The 
infinite and eternal power which is thus revealed 
in the physical life of the universe seems in no 
wise akin to the human soul. The idea of benefi- 
cent purpose seems for the moment to be excluded 
from nature, and a blind process, known as natural 
selection, is the deity that slumbers not nor sleeps. 
Reckless of good and evil, it brings forth at once 
the mother's tender love for her infant and the 
horrible teeth of the ravening shark, and to its 
creative indifference the one is as good as the 
other. 



224 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

" In spite of these appalling arguments the man 
of science, urged by the single-hearted purpose to 
ascertain the truth, be the consequences what they 
may, goes quietly on and finds that the terrible 
theory must be adopted ; the fact of man's consan- 
guinity with dumb beasts must be admitted. 

" In reaching these conclusions the man of sci- 
ence reasons upon the physical facts within his 
reach, applying to them the same principles of com- 
mon sense whereby our every-day lives are success- 
fully guided. When once the formidable theory 
is really understood, when once its implications are 
properly unfolded, it is seen to have no such logical 
consequences as were at first ascribed to it. As 
with the Copernican astronomy, so with the Dar- 
winian biology, we rise to a higher view of the 
workings of God and of the nature of man than 
was ever attainable before. So far from degrading 
humanity,, or putting it on a level with the animal 
world in general, the Darwinian theory shows us 
distinctly for the first time how the creation and 
the perfecting of man is the goal toward which 
nature's work has all the while been teilding. It 
enlarges tenfold the significance of human life, 
places it upon even a loftier eminence than poets or 
prophets have imagined, and makes it seem more 
than ever the chief object of that creative activity 
which is manifested in the physical universe." ^ 

1 Fiske, " Destiny of Man." 



MAN AND THE CHRIST THEORY. 225 



CHAPTER III. 

man's place in nature, as affected by the 
christ theory. 

If we follow out the doctrine of evolution to 
its close on this planet, we shall find that the 
spirit organism, i.e.., son of man, is the ultimate 
perfection of a principle extant throughout man's 
whole history on earth ; and because the completed 
evolution of this principle produced a Christ, we 
call it the Christ principle, or, in the language of 
science, the psychical. 

In elucidating these points, we may fitly begin 
by considering the question as to the possibility 
of the evolution of any higher creature than man, 
to whom the dominion over this earth shall pass. 
The question will best be answered by turning 
back and observing one of the most remarkable 
features connected with the origin of man and with 
his superiority over other animals. And let it be 
borne in mind that we are not now about to wan- 
der through the regions of unconditional possibil- 
ity. We are not dealing with vague general 
notions of development, but with the scientific 
Darwinian theory, which alleges development only 



226 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

as the result of certain rigorously defined agencies. 
The chief among these agencies is natural selection. 

It has again and again been illustrated how by 
the cumulative selection and inheritance of slight 
physical variations generic differences, like those 
between the tiger and the leopard, or the cow and 
the antelope, at length arise ; and the guiding 
principle in the accumulation of slight physical 
differences has been the welfare of the species. 
The variant forms on either side have survived 
while the constant forms have perished, so that 
the lines of demarcation between allied species 
have grown more and more distinct, and it is usu- 
ally only by going back to fossil ages that we 
can supply the missing links of continuity. In 
the desperate struggle for existence no peculiarity, 
physical or psgchical^ however slight, has been too 
insignificant for natural selection to seize and 
enhance ; and the myriad fantastic forms and hues 
of animals illustrate the seeming capriciousness of 
its workings. 

It will again and again be illustrated how by the 
cumulative selection and inheritance of slight psy- 
chical variations like those between Adam and a 
Noah or Abraham at length arise ; and the guiding 
principle in the accumulation of slight psychical 
differences has been the welfare of, and produced 
the spirit organism, i.e.., a Christ or son of man. 
The variant psychical accumulations on either side 
have survived while the constant have perished, so 



MAN AND THE CHRIST THEORY. 227 

that the lines of demarcation between an Abra- 
ham and a son of man or developed spirit (psy- 
chical) organism have grown more and more 
distinct; and it is only by going back to the line of 
prophets that we can supply the missing links of 
continuity in the psychical, as we supply the miss- 
ing links of continuity in the physical difference 
by going back to fossil ages. Hence in tracing 
the revelation of the development of the Christ 
principle, sacred and secular history furnishes the 
requisite data, as the secrets locked in the iron 
hills furnish the requisite data for the demonstra- 
tion of the doctrine of evolution on the physical 
side. In the desperate struggle for psychical exist- 
ence no psychical peculiarity, however slight, has 
been too insignificant for natural selection to seize 
and enhance ; and the countless grades or planes 
of psychical phenomena illustrate the seeming 
capriciousness of its working. 

Psychical variations have never been unimpor- 
tant since the appearance of the first faint pig- 
ment-spot which by and by was to translate touch 
into vision as it developed into the lenses and 
humors of the eye. Special organs of sense and 
the lower grades of psychical development, per- 
ception and judgment, were slowly developed 
through countless ages, in company with purely 
physical variations of shape of foot, or length of 
neck, or complexity of stomach, or thickness of 
hide. 



228 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

At length there came a wonderful moment, 
silent and unnoticed, as are the beginnings of all 
great revolutions. Silent and unnoticed, even as 
the day of the Lord, i.e.^ when spirit comes to 
birth in the human soul, which cometh like a thief 
in the night, there arrived that wonderful moment 
at which psychical changes began to be of more 
use than physical changes to the brute ancestor of 
man. 

Through further ages of ceaseless struggle the 
profitable variations in this creature occurred 
often er and oftener in the brain, and less often in 
other parts of the organism, until by and by the 
size of his brain had been doubled and its com- 
plexity of structure increased a thousandfold, 
while in other respects his appearance was not 
so very different from that of his brother apes. 
Along with this growth of the brain, the com- 
plete assumption of the upright posture, enabling 
the hands to be devoted entirely to prehension and 
thus relieving the jaw of that part of their work, 
has co-operated in producing that peculiar contour 
of head and face which is the chief distinguishing 
mark of physical man. These slight anatomical 
changes derive their importance entirely from the 
prodigious intellectual changes in connection with 
which they have been produced ; and these intel- 
lectual changes have been accumulating until 
the distance, psychically speaking, between civil- 
ized man and the ape is so great as to dwarf in 



MAN AND THE CHRIST THEORY. 229 

comparison all that had been achieved in the pro- 
cess of evolution down to the time of our half- 
human ancestor's first appearance. No fact in 
nature is fraught with deeper meaning than this 
two-sided fact of the extreme physical similarity 
and enormous psychical divergence between man 
and the group of animals to which he traces his 
pedigree. It shows that when humanity began to 
be evolved an entirely new chapter in the history 
of the universe was opened. Henceforth the life 
of the nascent soul came to be first in importance, 
and the bodily life became subordinated to it. 
Henceforth it appeared that, in this direction at 
least, the process of zoological change had come 
to an end, and a process of psychological change 
w^as to take its place. Henceforth along this 
supreme line of generation there was to be no fur- 
ther evolution of new species through physical 
variation, but through the accumulation of psychi- 
cal variations one particular species was to be in- 
definitely perfected and raised to a totally different 
plane from that on which all life had hitherto 
existed. Henceforth, in short, the dominant as- 
pect of evolution was to be not the genesis of 
species, but the progress of civilization. 

Hence the progress of civilization rests and 
depends upon the development of the psychical 
principle, z.e., nascent soul. The development of 
the soul developed the brain. A larger or more 
developed soul must have a larger brain to acconi- 



230 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

plish the projections of the soul. Now, it is clear 
that, if the soul had not developed or accumulated 
in degree, the brain would not have developed. 
Hence it is clear that the divine energy, z.e., Christ 
principle that became incarnate in the first human 
being is not the same in degree as that which be- 
came incarnate in the civilized human being, and 
the Christ principle that became incarnate in the 
civilized man is not the same in degree as in the 
spiritually developed man or prophet. That dif- 
ference is unquestionably a difference in kind, but 
in saying this one must guard against misunder- 
standing. Not only in the world of organic life, 
but through the known universe, the doctrine of 
evolution regards difference in kind as due to the 
gradual accumulation of difference in degree. In 
the organic world the perpetual modification of 
structures that has been effected through natural 
selection exhibits countless instances of differences 
in kind which have risen from the accumulation 
of differences in degree. 

I have indicated, as the moment at which the 
creation of mankind began, the raoment when 
psychical variations became of so much more use to 
our ancestors than physical variations that they 
were seized and enhanced by natural selection to 
the comparative neglect of the latter. Increase of 
intellectual capacity in connection with the de- 
veloping brain of a single race of creatures now 
became the chief work of natural selection in origi- 



MAN AND THE CHRIST THEORY. 231 

nating man ; and this, I say, was the opening of a 
new chapter, the last and most wonderful chapter 
in the history of creation. 

When the spirit or psychical organism began to 
be evolved, as we have evidence in Abraham, 
Moses, and the prophets, an entirely new chapter 
in the history of the universe was opened. Hence- 
forth the life of the spirit organism in man, i.e.^ 
son of man, came to be first in importance, and the 
physical life became subordinated. Henceforth it 
appears that when the spirit organism, ^.e., son of 
man, is developed, in each case at least the pro- 
cess of psychical or spiritual evolution, so far as 
this life is concerned, has reached its goal. When 
the inner soul (spirit) comes to birth it reflects the 
further evolution of the psychical or inner life through 
the outer soul or intellect. 

When spirit comes to birth we have the beginning 
of intelligent power on this planet. Man with his 
superiority over other animals is the dominant 
power over the physical world ; while the devel- 
oped spirit organism, i.e., son of man, is lord of the 
spiritual sphere or unseen universe. Or, as ex- 
pressed by Jesus, '' The Son of man is lord also of 
the sabbath." The mistake has been and is made 
by supposing that the term son of man applies to 
Jesus only ; whereas it is the name applied to the 
completed psychical organism or spirit organism, 
as the completed physical organism is called man. 

If psychological change had come to an end 



232 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

when the process of zoological change came to an 
end, we should have had no intellectual or spiritual 
man on this planet. That simple but wasteful 
process of survival of the fittest, through which 
such marvellous things have come into being in 
the physical world, continues to be the process in the 
psychical, that Deity that slumbers not nor sleeps. 
Reckless of the waste of the physical body and the 
human soul, it brings forth after countless ages the 
spirit organism, i.e., son of man, the goal towards 
which nature tended from the beginning, and to 
the process's creative indifference the human soul, 
i.e., intellect, is no better than the physical body. 

In spite of the appalling theological arguments, 
the man of science, urged by the single-hearted pur- 
pose to obtain spiritual truth, be the consequences 
what they may, goes quietly on and finds that 
the theory of the Christ principle, i.e., Christology, 
must be adopted. In reaching this conclusion the 
man of religion and science reasons upon the psy- 
chical facts within his reach, applying to them the 
same principles of common sense whereby our every- 
day lives are successfully guided ; and he is very 
apt to smile at the methods of those people who, 
taking hold of the question of the Christ principle 
at the wrong end, begin by arguing about all manner 
of consequences. For this knowledge of tradition- 
alism assures him that such methods of coming at 
the root of Christianity have through all past time 
proved barren of aught save strife, while his own 



MAN AND THE CHRIST THEORY. 233 

bold yet simple method is the only one through 
which truth may be elicited. To pursue unflinch- 
ingly the methods of science in the spiritual sphere 
requires dauntless courage and a faith that nothing 
can shake, because it is born of experience. Such 
courage and such loyalty to our spirit organism, 
z.e., the Christ or Son of man within us, bring 
their own reward. 

For when once the formidable theory is under- 
stood, when once its implications are properly 
unfolded, it is seen to have no such logical conse- 
quences as were at first ascribed to it. 

As with the Copernican astronomy and the 
Darwinian biology, with the Christ-principle theory, 
i.e.^ Christology, we rise to a higher view of the 
workings of God and the psychical nature of man 
than was ever attainable before. So far as degrad- 
ing the Son of man or spirit organism as attested 
by the life of Jesus and Paul, or putting it on a 
level with humanity in general, the Christ-principle 
theory shows us distinctly for the first time how 
the creation of man and the perfecting of the 
spirit organism, i.e.^ spiritual man or Son of man, 
is the goal towards which the psychical has all the 
while been tending. It enlarges a hundredfold 
the significance of human life, places it upon 
even a loftier eminence than poets or prophets have 
imagined, and makes it seem more than ever the 
principal object of that creative activity which is 
manifested in the psychical universe. 



234 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

In the psychical changes that took place between 
the brute ancestor of man and the fully developed 
man, the Darwinian theory does not attempt to 
compute the number of manlike ape bodies, or 
half-human bodies and sentient souls, that were 
"lost" or wasted before the fully developed man 
came into existence. Neither does the Christ- 
principle theory attempt to compute the number 
of physical bodies and human souls that were 
" lost " or wasted between the fully developed 
physical man and the spiritually developed or 
perfect man, z.e.. Son of man. 

He who has mastered the Darwinian theory, he 
who recognizes the slow and subtle process of 
evolution as the way in which God makes things 
come to pass, must take a higher view and will 
more readily comprehend the Christ-principle the- 
ory. He sees that in the deadly struggle for exist- 
ence which has raged throughout countless seons 
of time, the whole creation, including humanity, 
have been groaning and travailing together in 
order to bring forth that last consummate speci- 
men of God's handiwork, a spirit organism, ^.e., a 
Christ or Son of man. 

It is strange, then, at that age of the world 
when men were in the embryonic stage and were 
worshipping gods many, that they should wor- 
ship Jesus, the first perfect man, but not the 
first Son of man. 



ADAM'S PLACE IN NATURE. 235 



CHAPTER IV. 

Adam's place in nature. 

"The first (man) Adam was made a living soul ; the last 
(or complete) Adam was made g, quickening spirit." — 1 Cor. 
XV. 45. 

If we would go back to the beginning of the 
struggle of the human race for immortality we 
must commence with the history of the first Adam 
and follow the line of spiritual development to 
the last or complete Adam or Son of man. For 
this purpose I shall rely upon sacred history, as I 
believe it to be the record of a progressive spiritual 
revelation to the world of the developing spirit 
organism, a literature of the slow spiritual develop- 
ment of mankind, viz., the development of the 
Christ principle from the embryo to the Christ 
organism or Son of man. 

It cannot be denied that God has always revealed 
himself to man in his works ; but the conception of 
a Divine Being, of a Supreme Cause, was accom- 
plished through the slow progressive development 
of the divine or Christ principle resident or inhe- 
rent within the soul of primitive man, advancing 
almost imperceptibly by an instinctive and spon- 
taneous evolutionary movement. 



236 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

Just as the knowledge of our ego, self or soul, 
and of the exterior world, was not acquired spon- 
taneously without effort, reflection, or experience, 
so the idea of the existence of God, at first embry- 
onic, so to speak, has need of slow and successive 
efforts of the human mind or soul through which 
it was conceived, in order to attain its complete 
development. 

Hence God could not reveal himself to man 
only through his work until such time as the 
spirit embryo in man should be sufficiently devel- 
oped to have a spiritual conception of God, which 
could only be revealed through the intellect to the 
world ; therefore ages upon ages must elapse before 
God's spiritual nature could be revealed to the 
world. Such revelation as we have in the Old 
Testament may be taken as the measure or capa- 
city of spiritual developmont. 

Prior to the time when it was first possible for 
the process of inspiration to take place, there must 
have been many oral traditions which were handed 
down from patriarchal times. When Abraham 
left " Ur of the Chaldees " he probably gathered 
together these accounts, took them with him, and 
handed them down to his children ; they passed 
them on to their children, and finally they were 
embodied by Moses in the Pentateuch, and so be- 
came the heritage of the Jewish nation. These 
narratives cannot be interpreted literally, and, as a 
matter of fact, no one should attempt so to inter- 



ADAM'S PLACE IN NATURE. 237 

pret them: Two facts, however, stated in Genesis 
concerning man's origin, modern science confirms; 
viz., first, that man's body consists of dust; and 
secondly, that the soul of man is not identical with 
his body. 

It is hard to carry ourselves back to the infancy 
of the world and think aright of the childhood of 
the human mind or soul. The simple fancies of 
savage tribes at the present day were then, in fact, 
the sober belief of all races. If we are to take the 
intellectual status of savage tribes at the present 
day as representative of primitive man's intellectual 
condition, we must accept their customs and usages 
as typical of primeval customs and usages, for 
these are only outward and visible signs of the 
embryonic mental and spiritual condition. 

They could form no conception of general facts, 
no abstract ideas, only limited association of ideas, 
a little above the intelligent brute ; no notion of 
natural law or uniformity of nature ; they possessed 
simply a reminiscent, not a constructive imagina- 
tion. No doubt primitive man possessed a very 
low form of language, half way between the com- 
munications of animals and full human speech, 
consisting, probably, of gestures and emotional 
cries which gradually developed into full human 
speech. 

Closely connected with the physical develop- 
ment of man is the question of Preadamitism. 
Though we may not know the exact year of Adam's 



238 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

birth, we may approximately ascertain it, and this 
is sufficient for our purpose. The Biblical Adam 
lived, say, six to ten thousand years ago. Men 
who lived before Adam, however remote they were, 
I denominate Preadamites, and in the line of spirit- 
ual development I denominate them spirit embryos, 
holding the conditions of immortality in embryo. 
The progressive development of the mind or soul 
of the Preadamities was the preparation for and the 
prophecy of a spiritual development. It is not to 
be supposed that an idea of God had at any time 
entered the mind of primitive man prior to the 
birth of Adam ; hence in the spiritual line we speak 
of Adam as the first man, or as the first Adam. 
Adam according to this view would be considered 
not a specific name, like " Smith " or " Jones," but 
simply a generic term, applied to the first human 
being who had reached a certain condition or stage 
of development ; hence with Adam begins a 7iew 
epoch of development, a new departure, perhaps as 
great a differentiating as had taken place when the 
first Aitman being was differentiated from the lower 
animal. 

At any rate, at this epoch Adam and Eve were 
selected from the common herd of human beings, 
and through some divine energy or effluence were 
raised above the common herd of Preadamites, 
and a higher race of human beings sprung from 
Adam and Eve. That Eve had a spiritual concep- 
tion of God cannot be denied, if we give credence 



ADAM'S PLACE IN NATURE. 239 

to the exclamation of Eve at the birth of her first 
child, " I have gotten a man from the Lord." And 
from this fact, no doubt, the sons of Adam and 
Eve came to be called " the sons of God." No 
doubt the sons and daughters of men, viz., the 
Preadamites, were as fair to look upon as the sons 
and daughters of Adam and Eve. As the differen- 
tiating alluded to had taken place within the soul 
of Adam and Eve, the first, and we might say the 
faintest, impulse had been given to the slumbering 
Christ principle or spirit embryo. Therefore it is 
not improbable that the "sons of God," viz., the 
sons of Adam and Eve, "saw the daughters of 
men [Preadamites] that they were fair ; and 
they took them wives of all which they chose." 
This supposition agrees with the Biblical state- 
ment that Cain's wife was a woman of the country 
to which he fled. She was a daughter of the 
Preadamite race. Seth must have married one of 
the " daughters of men," or Preadamites ; there 
was no alternative unless he married his own sis- 
ter. At this date Adam's daughters are not stated 
to have been born. 

The foregoing supposition demonstrates the 
fact that " the sons of God," i.e., sons of Adam, 
intermarrying with the "daughters of men," i.e., 
Preadam.ites, caused immediate degeneration, and 
the genealogy of the patriarchs from Adam to 
Noah would be a mixed genealogy of the Adamic 
and Preadamite races so far as they intermarried 



240 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

with the Adamic race, z.e., " sons of God." At 
the time of the Deluge the whole Preadamite race 
were swept out of existence, leaving only Noah, a 
lineal descendant of the Adamic and Preadamite 
races, and his wife and his three sons and their 
wives, making "eight souls" in all. Although the 
Preadamite race was destroyed by the Flood the 
race did not become extinct, it still lived in Noah 
and his descendants. 

It will be observed that during the Adamic 
period the progress of spiritual development was 
retarded by what in the order of nature might 
be called a curse or "fall," viz., the intermarrying 
of "the sons of God," Adam's sons, with the 
" daughters of men " — Preadamites. The natu- 
ral result was twofold, presupposing that a true 
or upward spiritual evolutionary movement had 
begun with the birth of Adam — vitiation of the 
Adamic race, and consequent degeneration. The 
attempt to elevate the race had been naturally 
thwarted. 

Three possibilities of life, according to science, 
are open to all living organism, — balan-ce, evo- 
lution, and degeneration. From the state of 
apparent balance, evolution is the escape in the 
uptvard direction, degeneration in the lower. 
Professor Le Conte . thus defines evolution : " Ev- 
olution is (1) continuous progressive change ; (2) 
according to certain laws; (3) and by means of 
resident forces y 



ADAM'S PLACE IN NATURE. 241 

The first part of the definition is well illustrated 
in the development of the physical body. Each 
one of us is an evolution. We begin our exist- 
ence as a minute germ, which adds cell to cell, 
tissue to tissue, organ to organ, and function to 
function, until we are finally evolved as infants ; 
and then we continue to develop into men and 
women. Here we see " progressive change," and 
this happens according to certain laws which are, 
generally speaking, three ; viz., the law of dif- 
ferentiating, the law of progress of the whole, 
and the law of cyclical movement. 

The law of differentiating simply means the law 
of divergence., and is illustrated by the develop- 
ment of the acorn into the oak. The tree begins 
as a little seed, and by successive branching and 
rebranching, each branch taking a different direc- 
tion and all growing wider and wider apart, differ- 
entiating, until it finally stands forth complete. 

The second law is that of progress of the whole. 
"Many imagine," says Professor Le Conte, "that 
progress is the one law of evolution ; in fact, that 
evolution and progress are coextensive and convert- 
ible terms. They imagine that in evolution the 
movement must be upward and onward in all parts ; 
that degeneration is the opposite of evolution. This 
is far from true. There is, doubtless, in evolution 
progress to higher and higher planes, but not along 
every line nor in every part ; for this would be 
contrary to the law of differentiation. It is only 



242 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

progress of the whole organic kingdom in its en- 
tiretg.''' 

The third law of evolution is that called the law 
of cyclical movement. In other words, although 
the evolutionary movement has ever been onward 
and upward, yet it has not travelled at a uniform 
rate in the whole, much less in the parts, but it has 
moved in successive egcles. " The tide of evolu- 
tion rose ever higher and higher, without ebb, but 
it nevertheless came in successive waves, each 
higher than the preceding and overborne by the 
succeeding." 

Thus the first two of our definitions of evolu- 
tion, namely, that it is a progressive change accord- 
ing to the laws of differentiation, cyclical movement, 
and progress of the whole, have been explained. 
The last, which teaches that these changes are pro- 
duced hg forces resident in the organis7ns themselves, 
is perhaps the most important, and the part which I 
wish particularly to emphasize. " When the evolu- 
tionist," says Professor Le Conte, " speaks of the 
forces that determine progressive changes in organic 
forms as resident or inherent, all that he means, 
or ought to mean, is that they are resident in the 
same sense as all natural forces are resident ; in 
the same sense that the vital forces of the emhrgo 
are resident in the embryo ; in other Avords, they are 
natural and not supernatural." 

When I speak of the Christ principle or spirit 
embryo being resident or inherent in the soul, all 



ADAM'S PLACE IN NATURE. 248 

that I mean is, that it is resident in the same sense 
as all natural forces are resident, in the same sense 
that the vital forces of the condition of immortal 
spirit, the image of God, is resident. Then the 
soul of Adam contained a living or immortal prin- 
ciple ; individuation had been completed to actual 
separation, the resident force had attained spiritual 
individuality, it had become a separate entity or 
ego, although onl?/ a spirit embryo. 

The question might now be asked, Did Adam 
attain personal immortality ? To which I should 
unhesitatingly answer no. Then follows the inter- 
rogative. Why ? Simply because the spirit embryo 
resident in the soul of Adam did not come to birth, 
did not become a spirit organism, a conscious spir- 
itual being. As the development from the embryo 
to the spirit organism must take place while in the 
body, failing to accomplish this, there was but one 
alternative, when the dissolution of the material 
body took place, being an unconscious entity spirit, 
to complete its evolution it must again become the 
resident of a material body. " For it is not possible 
that the blood of bulls and of goats [or even of 
man] could take away sins," or develop the divine 
in man. ""Wherefore when he [Jesus] cometh 
into the world, he saith. Sacrifice and offering thou 
wouldst not, hut a body hast thou prepared for me.'' 

If a body was prepared, or ready, for the resi- 
dence of the spirit embryo that was to develop into 
Jesus, the ideal Christ or Son of man, is it unreason- 



244 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

able to suppose that material conditions are ready 
to receive other spirit embryos, as the Christ princi- 
ple is resident in the embryo, the divine incar- 
nation, is natural^ and not supernatural, and that 
it is developed under the foregoing laws of evolu- 
tion ? There is in spiritual evolution progress to 
higher and higher planes, and that progress may be 
traced through the ages of eternity that have elapsed 
between the birth of Adam and the present time, 
from six to ten thousand years, but not along every 
line nor in every part ; for this would be contrary 
to the laAV of differentiation. It is only progress of 
the whole spiritual kingdom in its entirety. 

Then the all-important question is immortality. 
All the other questions of Christianity sink into 
insignificance in comparison with this. The ques- 
tion is not whether the divine or Christ principle 
is immortal ; that we know ; but it is in relation to 
the individual. Perhaps this point cannot be 
better illustrated than by going back to the Adamic 
period. 

As regards the individual immortality of the 
Preadamites that question may be settled by a wave 
of the hand. " Their bodies returned to dust," or 
inorganic matter, " and their spirit to God who 
gave it," or emerged into the general fund of unor- 
ganized spirit. 

But with the birth of Adam begins a new differ- 
entiation. The first (man) Adam was made a 
living soul, differentiated from the sentient prin- 



ADAM'S PLACE IN NATURE. 245 

ciple or animal soul to the Christ principle or im- 
mortal spirit. It ha^. now reached the rational 
plane in spiritual evolution. 

Taking the Biblical record of the Adamic period, 
there is but one who I should say attained personal 
immortality, endless life, and that was Enoch. It 
is said that ''Enoch walked with God," or com- 
muned with God ; " and he was not,''' or was 
lifted up, "for God took him." The lifting up 
does not refer to his hod^ in this instance ; neither 
where Jesus said, " If I be lifted up I will draw all 
men unto me." 

Do not understand me to say that I believe one 
spirit embryo of the Adamic period, or the descend- 
ants of Adam, perished. They simply did not 
complete their individuation by becoming spirit 
organism or conscious spiritual beings, and thus 
attain resurrection during the Adamic ])eviod. The 
spirit embryos or entities had only just begun 
their individual evolution. Each one of us repre- 
sents a spiritual evolution. We begin our spiritual 
existence as a minute germ, i.e., Christ principle 
or embryo, which adds spiritual cell to cell, tissue 
to tissue, organ to organ, and function to function, 
until we finally come to spiritual birth, evolved as 
spiritual infants ; and then we continue to develop 
into conscious spiritual beings. 

The mistake is made in supposing that spirit 
progression or evolution takes place wholly after 
the spirit has left the body, which it is evident 



246 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

is contrary to the laws of evolution. Spiritual 
evolution to the degree of organization and con- 
sciousness must take place in the soul, the natural 
environment of the resident or inherent spirit em- 
bryo. Another mistaken idea is that "spirit" 
hioivs everything. A spirit embryo knows nothing 
whatever, not even its own existence ; its evolution 
consists in advancing or unfolding in spiritual 
knowledge. " And Jesus increased in wisdom 
and stature, and m favor with Grod and man." 

Suppose, then, in the line of evolution, that in 
the beginning of the history of the human being, 
in the first man Adam there existed, inherent or 
resident, the completed sentient principle or human 
soul, and within the human soul the divine or 
Christ principle, two natures, Adam's offspring 
would begin to develop the oiie on the other side 
of such nature ; by successive branching and re- 
branching, each branch taking a different direction 
and all growing wider and wider apart (differenti- 
ating), we would in due time be presented with 
the developed soul, the moral and intellectual 
man, and the developed Christ principle, spiritual 
man, prophet, or son of man. " As he spake by 
the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been 
since the world hegan^'' which was equivalent to 
saying. As Zacharias supposed that the begin- 
ning of the world was within six days of the cre- 
ation of Adam, since the birth of Adam. Hence, 
when spirit came to birth and maturity it pro- 



ADAM'S PLACE IN NATURE. 247 

duced what we denominate a prophet, or son of 
man. When the soul comes to birth we have the 
thinker, inventor, scientist. All unaware we have 
discovered the secret source or fountain-head of 
religion and science. 

Science has explored its branch to its source. 
The fact of evolution is fully established, and al- 
most universally accepted by those who are author- 
ities in science. Thus Professor Le Conte says, 
" We are confident that evolution is absolutely/ cer- 
tain." When the scientific religionist has ex- 
plored the other branch, viz., the Christ principle, 
he will be able to say that spiritual evolution, or 
the theory of the Christ principle, is established. 
And then in the place of traditional authority we 
shall have a new science one step higher than psy- 
chology ; but as I am not able to divine the name 
of this new science I will call it Christology, the 
science of the development of the spirit organism 
from the Christ principle to the Christ, or Son 
of man. Then we shall have the last chapter, or 
sequel to evolution. 

It should be carefully borne in mind that the 
tJieory of the Christ principle and the fact of the 
Christ principle are two entirely different things : 
my theory may be faulty, while the fact will re- 
main intact. I am an evolutionist. I believe that 
man has been evolved, hody^ soul, and spirit, from a 
lower animal form ; and that is not all ; the half 
hath not been spoken ; that resident or inherent 



248 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

within the human sonl is the germ of a divine soul 
or organism, and upon the evolution or develop- 
ment of this divine germ, Christ principle, rests 
our hope of individual immortality. Hence with 
the first man, Adam, began our evolutionary strug- 
gle for individual immortality, which process cul- 
minated in the last or complete Adam, which was 
made, not only a quickened, but a quickening 
spirit. Hence the quickened spirit has the power 
of quickening the spirit embryo in others, as the 
developed intellect has the power of quickening 
the dormant intellect in others. 

The steps of spiritual evolution are not uniform. 
We have to look upon the spiritual development of 
the prophets not as a normal but a supernormal 
development. The spirit was hampered ; it had no 
power of expression on account of the undeveloped 
intellect. Thus inspiration was limited, as the soul 
that is inspired must have within itself a basis of 
knowledge, material, so to speak, for the new cre- 
ation. 



SON OF MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE. 249 



CHAPTER y. 

SON OF man's place IN NATUKE. 

The Christ-principle theory is thoroughly con- 
sistent with the spirit of the teachings of Jesus 
and with the evolutionary theory. This philos- 
ophy teaches that there has been going on from 
the beginning of the present order of things a two- 
fold deyelopment, an evolution of material forms 
and an evolution of immaterial forces. The ma- 
terial development reached completion in the 
human body, but the human soul was originally 
little more than an appendage of the body. But 
when the evolutionary process reached its goal in 
the human body, it was transferred to a higher 
plane, — to the spiritual nature of man, — and from 
that day forward it has been working for the per- 
fection of the soul. 

The Christ-principle theory takes up the subject 
of spirit where the evolutionary theory leaves it, 
and carries it on to completion, so far as the evo- 
lution movement on this planet is concerned. 
The Christ-principle theory holds that when spirit 
comes to birth it is the Christ, " God manifest in 



250 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

the flesh," in different degrees of development. 
When spirit comes to birth in me it is the Christ, 
God manifest in the flesh — only in a less degree 
than when spirit came to birth in the soul of Jesus. 
Thus we have different degrees of the Christ, 
God manifest in the flesh, in different individuals 
and in different periods of the natural develop- 
ment of this planet. In the antediluvian age, 
judging by the Biblical record, we decided that 
spirit came to birth in one individual only, and 
that was Enoch. Following the line of spiritual 
evolution we should say that the next was Abra- 
ham. Let it be understood that when spirit comes 
to birth it is the beginning of a divine life^ the 
beginning of a conscious spiritual life, and its lan- 
guage is, " Lo, I come to do thy will." Following 
the line we would next mention Isaac, Jacob, and 
Joseph. Now we come to Moses, the highest or 
most complete spiritual development, and there- 
fore the type or ideal of the Mosaic period and the 
Judaic dispensation, followed by a long line of 
prophets of different degrees of spiritual develop- 
ment. Among the greatest of these was Isaiah. 
The greater part of Isaiah's prophecy was concern- 
ing the Christ, and is as true a delineation of the 
Christ development as though it had been written 
from the Christ-principle theory standpoint, with 
the exception of the modern knowledge of evolu- 
tion. We ought not to expect the prophets to 
anticipate modern science that does not belong 



SON OF ]\rAN'S PLACE IN NATURE. 251 

to the spiritual branch of development, the birth 
of spirit, but rather to the birth and development 
of the mortal soul or intellect. 

If we develop the Christ or divine life within 
us we are building upon a sure foundation. Tt 
is because they have failed, by not being suffi- 
ciently developed themselves, to comprehend this 
fact^ that philosophies and systems have passed 
away. It is because they built upon the dead let- 
ter of authority instead of the living spirit within 
them, the developed spirit organism, the Christ or 
Son of man. Jesus had that ivithin him which the 
Jews could not withstand. What was it? It was 
the completed development of the Christ principle, 
a divine life^ a spirit organism, the Christ or Son 
of man. Paul had that within him which the Jews 
could not withstand. What was it? It was a 
divine life, a spirit organism, the Christ or Son 
of man. It was more than a faith, a belief in the 
divine life in Jesus ; it was a divine life in itself. 
If a life, then it was a spirit organism. 

What is this spiritual consciousness that I find 
within myself and which has been seeking expres- 
sion, lo, these three years ? I affirm that it is a di- 
vine life, and as nearly as I can express it, it is the 
development of the Christ principle or divine 
energy resident or inherent within my human soul ; 
or in other words, it is spirit come to birth, hence 
a spirit organism, the Christ within me; not 
the same that was in Jesus, or in Paul, or in the 



252 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

prophets. What is the difference? It is just tJiis: 
I consider in my case spirit has come to birth 
under normal conditions, whereas in the instance 
of Moses and the prophets, Jesus, Paul, Socrates, 
Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius, Zoroaster,' Plato, 
and many others, spirit came to birth under special 
or supernormal conditions of spiritual development. 
A thing is normal or in its normal state, according 
to science, when strictly conformed to those princi- 
ples of its constitution which make it what it is. 
It is supernormal when it departs from those prin- 
ciples. In the instance of spirit birth in Jesus and 
the others mentioned, it was a departing from the 
normal in degree caused by certain conditions. I 
know no better word than supernormal to express 
the degree of spiritual development or divine life 
manifested in the development of the Christ in 
these spirit organisms and attested in their lives 
and teachings. 

Jesus alone reached the perfect ideal, the com- 
plete evolution ; the others only approximately. 
Hence Jesus is the ideal or type of the Christ, or 
Son of man. 

Thus far I have used the expression Son of man 
interchangeably with spirit organism, and the 
Christ without special reference to Jesus. The 
Christ in Jesus is, beyond dispute, the one alto- 
gether perfect. Already it is far above every name 
that is named; and the interest it has awakened is 
growing more and more intense as the years are 



SON OF MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE. 253 

passing, and promises to become the absorbing and 
overwhelming theme of human thought. Still 
after centuries of discussion the problem of his 
origin remains. Even the Christian world are not 
agreed who he was. The difficulty grows entirely 
out of the apparently discrepant representations of 
the New Testament, making him both God and 
man. The problem is, to find some theory which 
shall harmonize these apparent contradictions. 

That Jesus was in some sense divine^ no intelli- 
gent individual doubts ; in tvhat sense I hope to 
demonstrate through the comprehension of the 
development of the Christ principle. If one can 
understand psychic evolution from the Christ prin- 
ciple to the development of the Christ, spirit organ- 
ism or Son of man, I think he will be able to 
comprehend the divine in Jesus. 

The idea that any degree of divine influence 
communicated to a man can invest him with a 
single divine attribute, or make him in any proper 
sense divine or immortal, is absurd. No one famil- 
iar with the New Testament can fail to see that the 
authors put an infinite gulf between Jesus and a 
mere man ; they make him the hero of the whole 
book, lift him infinitely above human being, and 
treat him with reverence due only to God. They 
ascribe to him every name by which God is 
known, and every attribute and perfection by 
which God is distinguished, and then they tell us 
by faith in the divine Jesus he will lift us, 



254 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

human beings across the infinite gulf and make 
us immortal like himself. 

Any one that can believe that a human being 
witJiout any divine principle or entity inherent 
within him can by a miracle be made immortal, — it 
would be nothing less than a miracle, — can believe 
almost anything. So far as " looking to Jesus " 
as God and man assists in quickening and bringing 
to birth the spirit embryo it is all right ; but when 
the spirit organism or the Christ is formed within 
us^ then we desire to know from whence it comes, 
and whither it goes. 

Among all the spiritual facts revealed by Jesus 
he did not reveal his origin, but left that to be in- 
ferred from his divine character. Although he 
repeatedly called himself the " Son of man," it 
will be observed that Son of man always refers to 
his divine nature, and not to his human nature or 
origin as is generally believed. " The Son of man 
hath power on earth to forgive sins." " The Son 
of man is Lord also of the sabbath." "No man 
hath ascended into heaven but he that descended 
out of heaven, even the Son of man which is in 
heaven." " What if ye should behold the Son of 
man ascending where he was?" There can be no 
doubt in these and numerous other passages that 
the term " Son of man " refers to Jesus' divine 
nature. 

Then this was a problem the people could not 
solve ; and they say, " We have heard out of the 



SON OF MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE. 255 

law that Christ abideth forever: and how sayest 
thou, The Son of man must be lifted up ? Who is 
this Son of man? " The Christ had been revealed 
by the prophets, but the origin of the Son of man 
had not been revealed, neither did Jesus reveal it. 
"He opened not his mouth " on the subject; but he 
said to his disciples, " The days will come when ye 
shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of 
man, and ye shall not see it." Then the days of 
the Son of man had not yet come. Again, " For as 
the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part 
under heaven, shineth unto the other part under 
heaven, " all over the earth, " so shall also the 
Son of man be in his day.'''' "But first," or the 
fir^t Son of man, " must suffer many things, and 
be rejected of this generation." " As it was in the 
days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of 
the Son of man. Even thus shall it be in the day 
when the Son of m.an is revealed.'''' 

Then the Son of man, or the origin of the Son 
of man, or divine nature in Jesus, had not been 
revealed at that time. Has it since been revealed 
by theology ? I answer, no : for this reason : the 
origin of the divine nature in man, ^.e., the Son of 
man, could not be revealed by theology unaided 
by the modern developments of science ; neither 
could the origin of the physical body be revealed 
until after the birth and development of physical 
science. Hence the revelation of the origin of the 
divine or spirit organism, ^.e., the Son of man, fol- 



256 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

lows the revelation of the origin of man's physical 
body in natural order. 

" His day," or the Son of man's day, begins when 
the Son of man is revealed to the world, not as the 
divine life or Christ in Jesus only^ but also in whom- 
soever spirit comes to birth. 

We may believe, therefore, that as great a miracle 
was wrought when spirit came to birth in Jesus as 
when life or self-conscious mind, a living soul, 
was introduced upon earth. In each case a special 
operation of the divine will, the source of all 
natural forces, occurred ; but we may hold that the 
divine will worked along the lines of its ordinary 
operations, did not violate the laws of generation 
which had been already established. In short, 
Joseph and Mary became the media through which 
the complete Son of man was born into the world. 
He was in a true sense God's first-begotten Son. 
As Jesus said, " I am the way," the way of spirit 
birth was opened with Jesus' advent into the 
world. 

Jesus' birth demonstrated the fact beyond a 
doubt that the birth into the world of a mature 
spirit takes place under the same conditions as the 
birth of the spirit embryo. Jesus' disciples asked 
him the question, " Why then say the scribes that 
Elias must first come ? " Jesus answered them, 
"I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and 
they knew him not^ but have done unto him what- 
soever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of 



SON OF MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE. 257 

Man suffer of them. Then the disciples under- 
stood that he spake unto them of John the Bap- 
tist."^ Then with the disciples we are to under- 
stand from Jesus' words, that the spirit that was in 
John the Baptist was the same spirit that was 
in Elijah the prophet. 

This view is thoroughly consistent with the evo- 
lution and Christ-principle theories. The spirit 
embryo does not come to maturity in the space of 
time allotted to one life in the body. It must, 
therefore, continue its evolution until such time as 
it become sufficiently mature to come to birth. 
When the spirit comes to birth the Christ is formed 
in us, and from that time we need fear nothing here 
or hereafter. 

When dissolution takes place, the divine life 
within the physical body is ready to be "lifted up ; " 
it has completed its primary or first stage of evolu- 
tion. 

As this process of spiritual evolution has been 
going on since the first Adam and continued 
through the ages, in time we shall have universal 
restoration. 

HoAv much nobler and more consistent is this 
view than that which presents us with the absurd- 
ity of the immortality of the human soul. To sup- 
port this theory of the immortality of the sentient 
or animal soul it became necessary to invent o, place 
called hell or hades for the bad souls to stay in, 

1 Matt. xvii. 12 : Mark ix. 13. 



258 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

and another place called heaven for the good souls 
to stay in, until the resurrection morn, — hundreds 
of billions of souls waiting. To prove this, it is 
said that Peter said, 1 Peter iii. 18-20, and iv. 6, 
that Jesus, after he was put to death in the flesh, 
during the three days between his crucifixion and 
resurrection, went and preached the gospel to the 
dead in prison, i.e.^ hades, the unseen world. 

Whereas, according to the evolutionary theory, 
Jesus did not have to go into the unseen world 
to preach to the spirits in prison. They were in 
prison in the human bodies then, the same. " Which 
sometime were disobedient, when once the long- 
suffering of God waited in the days of Noah^ while 
the ark was a-preparing, wherein few, that is, 
eight souls^ were saved by water." It seems from 
this state'ment that the spirit embryos that were 
resident in the physical bodies before the Flood, 
"in the days of Noah," were still in human bodies; 
that the spirit embryos of the days of Noah had not 
yet come to birth, had not completed their primary 
evolution, but were evolving in eternity by being 
born again and again, becoming incarnate and each 
time rising higher and higher in the scale of being ; 
until in time each spirit embryo would come to 
birth, and be "lifted up" or resurrected. From 
this we may infer that resurrection has taken place 
from time to time since the "lifting up" or resur- 
rection of the spiritual body of Enoch. "Many 
are called but few are chosen." Many spiiit em- 



SON OF MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE. 259 

"bryos become incarnate, but few have come to spirit 
birth. 

We began with the postulate that force by com- 
pleted individuation reached the condition of im- 
mortal spirit, the image of God whence it originally 
came, in Jesus; it then became a separate entity 
capable of independent existence. Destroy, now, 
the original conditions of its individuation, viz., 
organic life, and the already individualized and 
separate force entity (spirit) is not again refunded 
or merged into the general fund of spirit. 

Now we are ready to begin with a spirit entity^ 
or what for convenience we call a spirit embryo, as 
it starts on its evolutionary career. We must bear 
in mind that although a spirit entity^ it remains an 
embryo; it does not reach the stage of conscious- 
ness until it comes to spirit birth. Now this par- 
ticular spirit entity that we are following became 
incarnate or appeared in human habiliments several 
times before the " days of Noah," and again on this 
.side of the Flood, until it finally comes to birth in 
Abraham or one of the prophets. 

If the whole physical and spiritual creation has 
heen moving forward and upward from \owqy planes^ 
if the immaterial part in particular has developed 
as just stated, why is it not probable, nay, necessary^ 
that in time it should reach perfection^ not only one 
spirit entity but every spirit entity? In its rude 
beginning the psychical life was but an appendage 
to the body; in fully developed humanity the body 



260 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

is the vehicle for the soul. In spirit birth and de- 
velopment the soul becomes the environment and 
nourishing mother of the developing spirit organism 
or Son of man. 

Such a thing is quite probable and a thoroughly 
rational and credible exposition of the divine in 
man, not only in Jesus, in whom these possibilities 
have been fulfilled, having reached the highest 
altitude, the complete Son of man ; but that every 
spirit entity is undergoing a similar evolution, and 
this explains the relation of the divine principle in 
man to the divine in Jesus. Without such a con- 
ception as that of God manifest in the flesh, not 
only in Jesus, but in every human heing^ the real 
grandeur and vastness of the process of evolution 
are not recognized. 

The general law of evolution and the process 
of the development of the Christ principle, then, 
suggest such manifestation of the divine in 
human forms, such incarnations as those claimed 
above. 

Taking our stand on this basis, let us glance 
over the history of the world and ask. Is there a 
man besides Jesus, and, if so, who is he, that 
seems to be such an embodiment of the divine 
spirit ? I answer it is an Abraham, a Moses, an 
Elijah, an Isaiah, a Paul, a Mohammed, a Buddha, 
a Confucius, a Zoroaster, a Socrates and a long 
list of others. Surely these are entities — spirit 
embryos — come to birth under different condi- 



SON OF MAN'S PLACE TN NATURE. 261 

tions and circumstances. If we believe them to 
have been the prophets of the living and true 
God. What makes a prophet ? I answer a con- 
scious divine life springing up from within the 
soul — then a spirit organism with new and won- 
derful properties added or developed — all the 
senses spiritualized and complete. We do not 
pretend to claim that any one of these spirit organ- 
isms equalled Jesus. But upon investigation it 
will be seen that the difference becomes perceptibly 
less than was at first supposed ; and it is found to 
be a difference of degree, and that much depends 
upon the stage of development from which the 
facts are viewed. From the Adamic period Jesus 
would appear a God of the first magnitude, and in 
the Mosaic a God of the second magnitude ; in the 
first centuries of the Christian a God-man, and 
later a divine man ; and last we find Jesus stand- 
ing on a firm basis — the completed spirit organism 
— " the Son of man." 

His divine origin recognized alike by science, 
philosophy, and religion. — In this conception the 
divine nature of Jesus is not lowered. It is only 
through the spiritual development of the Christ 
principle in man, a continued moving forward and 
upward, that man has been able to reach an approxi- 
mately right conception of the divine nature in 
Jesus and its relation to the divine principle 
in nature. Hence the divine character of Jesus is 
not lowered in our estimation ; his position hai 



262 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, 

become impregnable, and we no longer know 
Jesus after the flesh, we no longer waste words 
over his physical origin. We no longer think of 
" the Son of man as the human Jesus, and the 
Son of God as the divine Christ." But we think 
of him by the favorite name which he called him- 
self, according to the New Testament records, 
more than sixty times, the " Son of man," believ- 
ing that this term refers to his divine nature, and 
includes all that he was while in the physical 
body, and all that he is now in his glorified spiritual 
organism. This includes oneness of thought^ feel- 
i'ng^ and will with the Divine Spirit, and a com- 
pletion of the evolutionary movement as regards 
one entity or spirit embryo. 

Also that every spirit embryo that has come to 
birth in the physical body has completed its evolu- 
tion and commenced an endless conscious exist- 
ence. It has completed its struggle for immortality 
by reaching the goal, after, shall we say, hundreds 
or thousands of years of evolutionary spiritual 
progression in the body, and come into the resur- 
rection, or what we may call the final resurrection ; 
for the spirit entity has put on this mortal coil 
for the last time, and is ready to be lifted up " to 
my Father and your Father, to my God and your 
God." 

The spirit embryo when it comes to birth not 
only becomes a quickened, but a quickening spirit. 
"The Son of man has power to forgive sins," to 



SON OF MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE, 263 

quicken the spirit embryo into life in another. 
" For whether is it easier to say, T% sins be for- 
given thee ; or to say, Arise and walk ? " to quicken 
the spirit, and start the soul in an upward direc- 
tion ? It will not be denied that a developed intel- 
lect has the power to quicken a dormant intellect 
in another. Why should it be thought such an 
incredible thing that a developed spirit should 
have the power resident within him of quickening 
a dormant spirit? 

As the philosophy of the Christ principle is 
developed, many strange and wonderful things 
will come to light that have hitherto been classed 
among miracles. 



264 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE PHILOSOPHY OF EESUEEECTION. 

In the first place we do not propose to discuss 
the problem of bodily resurrection, the resurrection 
of the material body. We hold that the material 
body dies and is deposited in the grave, where it 
returns to dust and there remains, never to rise 
again. But the spirit that animated that body, 
what has become of it ? that is the question which 
we propose to discuss. The popular idea has been 
that the spirit exists for ages, between death and 
the resurrection morning, without any body, and 
it certainly seems wholly unnecessary that then it 
should be given a body. 

The idea of a body seems to be inseparably con- 
nected with the idea of resurrection. We think it 
comes from the long association of the idea of 
consciousness with a body, that without a body we 
cannot be conscious. Let us see. We believe that 
God is spirit and that God is conscious, but this 
does not necessitate our believing that God has a 
body. 

We take this position, that when resurrection 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RESURRECTION. 265 

takes place we are conscious spirit beings, as we 
are now conscious rational beings. 

According to the psychic-evolution and Christ- 
principle theory, when the Christ principle or unr 
conscious spirit embryo has completed its evolution 
it has become a conscious spirit organism, or spirit 
being; and, because this spirit being has been 
evolved from the divine or Christ principle in 
nature we call it a Christ or completed spirit 
organism, conscious of its existence, and ready to 
pass into another and higher state of existence 
when it is freed from the material body in which 
it is imprisoned. 

The only '' lifting up," therefore, which is ever 
to occur, takes place at the moment of death. 
Death, or separation of the spirit from the material 
body, covers a double meaning, and is well illus- 
trated by Jesus in the parable of the sheep and 
goats. Now, by substituting the spirit embryo 
for goats, and the completed spirit organism for 
sheep, we have the solution of the parable. Then 
shall he say unto them on the right, viz., those that 
have completed their evolution and become spirit 
organism : " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit, 
or enter into, the spiritual kingdom prepared for 
you from the foundation of the world." 

Then shall the King of Death say unto them on 
the left hand, viz., spirit embryos. Depart and 
again become imprisoned in the human body and 
continue your evolution. These shall go away to 



266 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

await their opportunity of incarnation and complet- 
ing their evolution by the process of regeneration, 
being born in the flesh over and over again, during 
ages and ages and what from the embryonic stage 
may be considered as everlasting ; it will be sure 
to last until such time as the slow evolutionary 
movement has brought the spirit embryo to hirth^ 
and it has become a conscious spirit organism, and 
thus already developed into the spiritual kingdom. 

This brings us to the point of considering the 
difference between this theory and the popular 
idea that spirit exists for ages., hetiveen death and 
the resurrection morning. Whereas I hold that 
spirit exists for ages between the spirit embryo and 
spirit birth. If we have a mind to call the spirit 
embryo deaths for it is an unconscious state, and 
spirit birth resurrection or a conscious state, then 
we find that the difference has vanished, and all 
there is left resolves itself into the question how 
the intervening time or ages between the two 
points is occupied. 

As we have assumed that the spirit embryo is 
unconscious^ it would be immaterial whether it were 
in heaven or hades, on the side of traditionalism. 

But on the part of psychical evolution that time, 
or ages it may be, must be accounted for, and it is 
thus accounted for in the evolutionary movement 
of psychic progression : not after resurrection has 
taken place but before, while it is imprisoned in 
and developing, therefore progressing in the scale 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RESURRECTION. 267 

of psychical being in the human body, every revo- 
lution, or regeneration, viz., rebirth, brings the 
spirit embryo on to a higher plane of psychic exist- 
ence, until in time the spirit embryo comes to birth 
in the human soul, which event we have called resur- 
rection. 

We believe this solution is entirely in accordance 
with the mind of Jesus on this point, judging from 
his remark, " Let the dead bury their dead." We 
cannot accuse Jesus of saying so silly a thing as, 
let a dead body bury a dead body. He evidently 
referred to the dormant spirit embryo within the 
body, not taking the human body into account. 
From this spiritual point of view nearly all with 
whom he conversed were spiritually dead, and his 
desire was to quicken these spirit embryos. 

In endeavoring to answer the question, how the 
intervening ages between the two points spirit in 
embryo and spirit come to birth or resurrection 
is occupied, we may find a solution to one of Jesus' 
parables.^ 

Let us take our position in the spiritual kingdom, 
a silent spectator, surrounded by spirit embryos, 
and accompany the householder as he goes out 
early in the morning to hire laborers into his vine- 
yard, viz., the world. And when he had agreed 
with the embryos for a penny a day, he sent them 
into his vineyard, the world, to become incar- 
nate within the human bodies which he had pre- 

1 Matt. XX. 1-16. 



268 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

pared. " A body hast thou prepared for me." If 
a material embryo is prepared to receive the spirit 
embryo which is to develop into the spirit organ- 
ism of Jesus, why should it be thought unreason- 
able to suppose that material embryos are ready to 
receive other spirit embryos that are seeking en- 
trance into the material world ? 

And the householder, viz.. Holy Spirit, went 
out about the third hour, and saw other spirit em- 
bryos standing idle in the market-place, and said 
unto them : Go ye also into the vineyard, — world, 
— and whatsoever is right I will give you. And 
they went their way. 

Again he went out about the sixth and ninth 
hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh 
hour he went out, and found other spirit embryos 
standing idle, and saith unto them. Why stand ye 
here all the day idle ? 

They say unto him, Because no man hath hired 
us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vine- 
yard (world) ; and whatsoever is right that shall 
ye receive. So when even was come and they which 
were spirit embryos had finished their labor, com- 
pleted their spiritual evolution, the lord of the 
vineyard said unto his steward. Call the laborers, 
and give them their hire, heginning from the last 
unto the first. 

And when they came that were hired about the 
eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. 
But when the fiirst came, they supposed that they 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RESURRECTION. 269 

should have received more ; and tJiey likewise 
received every man a penny. And when they re- 
ceived it, they murmured against the good man of 
the house, saying. These last have wrought but one 
hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, 
which have borne the burden and heat of the 
day. 

But he answered one of them, and said. Friend 
I do thee no wrong : didst not thou agree with me 
for a penny ? Take that thine is, and go thy way. 
I will give unto this last even as unto thee. Is it 
not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own ? 
Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the 
last shall be first, and the first last : for many be 
called but comparatively few chosen, viz., de- 
veloped. 

The " hire " or reward which each one received 
was immortality or endless life, which they re- 
ceived equally without regard to the length of time 
required by each spirit embryo to accomplish its 
evolution. 

The tendency or direction of the spirit at birth, 
or resurrection from the dormant state, is not out- 
ward but inward, a going into itself, where all is 
spiritual and belongs to the spiritual universe. 
As Jesus said, " The kingdom of God is within 
you." Is not the divine life within you more than 
meat, as the " body is more than raiment ? When 
spirit comes to birth or is resurrected from its 
unconscious state, all within the soul is spiritual. 



270 Psychic evolution. 

while all without is sensuous and belongs to the 
sense world. 

The spirit organism at birth draws itself back to 
the innermost and mysterious chambers of ex- 
istence which underlie the outward. The realm 
of the conscious spirit organism — the Christ or 
divine life within the soul — must be described, 
in relation to this world of sense^ as an inward 
realm. As the Christ is formed, or the spirit 
organism develops, it withdraws from the outward 
and visible sense world, or sphere of matter, into 
the unseen spiritual universe, or what Jesus called 
the kingdom of God. 

The rising again or '' lifting-up " process is en- 
tirely different from resurrection, and occurs at 
death, or when dissolution of the material body 
takes place ; and this is aptly called the judgment 
day, as death pronounces the final judgment. 

The " lifting up," or ascension, must not be 
thought of as a literal ascent into the skies, but 
rather a withdrawal into the spiritual universe, 
untrammelled by our material body, into the im- 
mediate presence of the Spirit in whom we live 
and move and have our spiritual being. 

We will endeavor to make the " lifting-up " 
process a little clearer by illustrating it by the 
law of gravity. It may seem an obvious objection 
to try to illustrate a spiritual law by a. natural law, 
as many of the natural laws may have no connec- 
tion whatever with the spiritual universe, and as 
a matter of fact are not continued through it. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RESURRECTION. 271 

First, grayitation in the material world deals 
with matter; and when matter ceases, or is not, 
we would no longer look for terrestrial gravitation 
but Spiritual gravitation. Let us look at the defi- 
nition. " Gravitation is the tendency of a mass of 
matter towards the centre of attraction ; espe- 
cially the tendency of a body toward the centre 
of the earth ; also that law in accordance with 
which gravitation acts, namely, that every two 
bodies or portions of matter in the universe attract 
each other with a force proportional directly to 
the quantity of matter they contain, and inversely 
to the square of their distances." 

This is the law of terrestrial gravitation. The 
law holds good in spiritual gravitation. It is the 
substance and centre that have changed. Hence 
every two spirit bodies or portions of spirit sub- 
stance or essence in the spiritual universe attract 
each other with a force proportional directly to 
the quantity of spirit they contain, and inversely 
to the square of their distances. 

Now, we may not be able to see the force of this 
law in the spiritual universe as we see it in the 
natural world ; but we have an equal advantage : 
we are able to feel the spirit attraction and be in- 
tellectually conscious of it. 

I do not know why the sense of consciousness is 
not as good objective proof as the sense of seeing. 
Long before the luords gravitation or attraction 
were coined, Jesus applied the meaning in the 



272 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

spiritual sense in this connection. " No man hath 
ascended up to heaven," or the spiritual universe, 
" but he that came down from heaven," or out of 
the spiritual universe, " even the Son of man 
which is in heaven," or unseen universe ; making 
the natural world and heaven or the unseen uni- 
verse one. — For Jesus was in the natural or sense 
world talking with Nicodemus, and he was in 
heaven or the spiritual universe at the same time. 
Nothing but spirit can ascend or be " lifted up," 
even the Son of man, viz., the Christ or spirit 
organism. 

Then the spirit in man came down, or out, from 
the Spirit of God. And by the law of spiritual 
gravitation or attraction, the " centre " being 
changed, the spirit in man must return to the 
centre of the spiritual universe which is the Spirit 
of God. Then by the law of spiritual attraction, 
when its evolution is completed and the spirit or- 
ganism is freed from the body, it must be lifted 
up because of the attraction toward the centre of 
the spiritual universe. 

The released spirit is " lifted up " according to 
an eternal law, the same as particles of matter are 
attracted to the centre of the earth ; and the con- 
ditions of individuation being fulfilled, the spiiit 
organism obeys the law of spiritual attraction.^ 
as naturally as the particles of matter obey the law 
of gravitation, and attract each other with a force 
proportional directly to the quantity of spirit. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RESURRECTION. 273 

Jesus said, "If I be lifted up^ I will draw all 
men unto me." There would be little or no at- 
traction between a spirit embryo and the centre of 
the spiritual universe. Hence the necessity of the 
quickening of the spirit embryo. It must be quick- 
ened or resurrected from its dormant state before 
it can be lifted up or acted upon by the law of 
attraction or spiritual gravitation. 

The whole doctrine of evolution as it is ex- 
pounded, not simply in the writings of modern 
philosophers, but as it appears in and agrees with 
spiritual evolution in the fifteenth chapter of 
First Corinthians, teaches this view. Paul says, 
" The first man Adam was made a living soul," 
containing the Christ principle or spirit embryo ; 
" the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.^"* It 
is evident that if the first Adam had not contained 
the Christ principle^ the second Adam would not 
have developed into a Christ or spirit organism. 

" For as in Adam all die," viz., the body returns 
to dust and the dormant or unquickened spirit 
embyro merges back into the general fund of spirit, 
" even so in Christ shall all be made alive," viz., 
the quickened spirit or Christ develops into a 
divine life or spirit organism. The dormant spirit 
embryo is brought to life or resurrected within the 
human soul; and when its individuation is com- 
pleted, and it is separated from the body by death, 
then it may be " lifted up." 

Until the quickening process takes place and by 



274 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

the evolutionary movement it is completed in the 
resurrection, the spirit embryo is under the law 
of terrestrial gravitation and its centre of gravity 
is the centre of the earth ; hence it cannot rise until 
such time as it becomes individuated or separated 
from the body, although it is continually acted 
upon by spiritual attraction from the embryonic 
stage, until by spirit birth or resurrection it be- 
comes a spirit organism, and when separated from 
the body is lifted up. Jesus was the first perfected 
*' fruit " of them that slept^ not in deaths but slept 
in embryo. 

If we remove the lifting-up or individuating 
force, or what we have called spiritual gravitation, 
then terrestrial gravitation prevails and the quick- 
ened and nearly completed spirit organism is re- 
funded. But when spirit comes to birth, there is 
no longer any tendency to return, for the cohesive 
ligature which binds the spirit organism to the 
mortal body is already severed at birth. The 
spirit organism or Christ is the man child that is 
born to the soul, and her life still circulates in the 
spirit babe, and it draws its identity from the soul 
which gave it birth. The umbilical cord is not sev- 
ered until death or dissolution takes place. 

The spirit embryo or Christ entity may lie dor- 
mant or not come to spirit birth for thousands of 
years, while all this time it is undergoing spiritual 
progression and rising on to a higher plane as the 
human soul develops. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RESURRECTION, 275 

The spirit embryo did not rise to the point of 
spirit birth or resurrection, except in the persons 
of Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and 
possibly a few others, during the period of fifteen 
hundred and seventy-one years, according to the 
Biblical record to the time of Moses. And all the 
spirit embryos or entities that had become incar- 
nate before the Flood had not all risen, it seems, in 
the time of Jesus, for Jesus while in the hody^ 
preached to the spirits that waited in the days of 
Noah while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, 
that is eight souls, were saved by water from phys- 
ical death. 

These eight mortal souls were the habitations of 
eight spirit embryos. These spirits imprisoned in 
the body, Israelites and Gentiles, to whom Jesus 
was preaching, were the identical " spirits " or spirit 
embryos that were in the bodies of those who lived 
before the Flood, or in the days of Noah. They had 
not at that time come to spirit birth or resurrec- 
tion. 

Thus the completed kinetic (force) individuality, 
or what we call the spirit in man, viz., Christ prin- 
ciple, has been evolving, unfolding, and conforming 
to the type from the beginning or creation of the 
first Adam, — we are willing to leave it to psychic 
evolutionists to say how long before that period. 

According to evolution there has been going on 
from the beginning a twofold development, viz., a 
development of material /orms and a development 



276 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

of material forces. The first has resulted in the 
human frame, which is a completion of the evolu- 
tionary movement from a physical point of view. 
When physical evolution had completed its course, 
spiritual evolution took up the work and carried it 
forward to its present high level, which is by no 
means its ultimate goal. But from this level we 
can follow the evolutionary movement backward, 
and we find that the development of immaterial 
forces has resulted in spirit birth and the develop- 
ment of the spirit organism, a Christ or Son of 
man. 

There is no more mystery in following out the 
completion of the evolutionary movement from an 
immaterial or spiritual point of view than from a 
physical point of view. The ultimate develop- 
ment of the spirit organism is as certain as the de- 
velopment of the physical organism, hence no one 
should demur to conclusions drawn from the fact, 
since, we have Jesus, Moses, and the prophets, Paul, 
and scores of spirit organisms, to substantiate the 
assertion. 

Moreover, belief in immortality is said to be 
direct intuition., a natural dictate of the soul ; 
and the soul, it is urged, is its own proper witness 
on this subject. A future existence is and must 
be a matter of information or intuition^ and not of 
inference. The intellect may imagine it, but could 
never have discovered it and can never prove it ; 
the developed spirit organism must have revealed 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RESURRECTION. 277 

it ; must, and does, perpetually reveal it, first in 
Jesus and then through other spirit organisms. It 
is a matter which comes properly within the cogni- 
zance of the spirit organism, of that spirit sense 
or consciousness to which on such topics we look 
for information as we look to our bodily senses 
for information touching the things of the material 
world, things which lie within their province. We 
therefore at once concede to the spirit the privi- 
lege of instructing us as to the things of itself ; 
we apply to the psychic sense for information on 
spiritual things. 

This brings us to the consideration of the sub- 
ject, viz., can the developed soul, aside from the 
spirit organism, give information in regard to im- 
mortality ? Moses was the first developed intellect 
or soul in the line of Abraham, and the most devel- 
oped spirit organism at that epoch. But did 
Moses give us any information in regard to immor- 
tality or future life. Though doubtless the spirit 
in Moses came to spirit birth it was not sufficiently 
developed to give information in regard to the 
future life. Neither was it in the prophets. 

It was through Jesus, the first completed spirit 
organism, that life^ i.e., spirit life and immortality^ 
were brought to light. It may be in this connection 
that Jesus said, " Greater things than these [which 
I have done] can ye do," when the spirit organism 
is developed in you. We are to have more and 
more light upon the subject of immortality as the 
spirit organism develops in the individual. 



278 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

Information on spiritual things rests not upon 
tradition but upon the development of the spirit 
organism corroborated by the statements of Jesus. 
This appears to me the only foundation on which 
the belief in an endless spirit life can legitimately 
rest. We have the divine life now^ and are con- 
scious of it. Those in whom spirit has come to 
birth have already entered into the resurrection. 
We may rest assured that when dissolution takes 
place we will be "lifted up" or withdrawn from 
the outward and visible sphere of matter into the 
unseen spiritual universe. 

I am aware that this knowledge is anterior to 
reasoning, independent of reasoning, unprovable 
by reasoning; and yet, as no logic can demon- 
strate its unsoundness or can bring more than 
negative evidence to oppose it, I can hold it with 
a simplicity and tenacity which are never granted 
to the conclusions of the understanding. I can 
hold it because I have the witness within myself, 
and it is not therefore on my part an act of 
belief but of spiritual knowledge. 

" Who hath believed our report ? and to whom 
is the arm (Spirit) of the Lord revealed?" Of 
course the force of this argument depends upon 
whether there is a spirit organism to bear such 
witness. When the spirit comes to birth within 
your own soul, the7i you have the witness, and 
not until then. "Who will believe our report?" 
Only those in whom the spirit has been quickened 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RESURRECTION. 279 

or come to birth. To whom is the Spirit of God 
revealed ? To those in whom the spirit has been 
quickened or come to birth. 

To the man who disbelieves the existence of the 
spirit organism or Christ in the individual — the 
man in whose soul the spirit embryo has not yet 
been quickened — this line of argument will 
appear unwarrantable and illogical, and always 
will appear so, for this reason, that the physical 
and psychological, though invariably associated 
with each other, term for term, cannot by any 
effort of the imagination be construed the one in 
the terms of the other, or explained the one by 
the other. They cannot, therefore, be imagined to 
be correlated or mutually convertible as are the 
different forms of physical and chemical force. 
Nor can they be imagined to stand in the relation 
of cause and effect in the same sense in which we 
use these terms when we speak of lower forces 
and phenomena, where cause and effect express 
only change from one form of motion to another. 

The great importance of the demonstration of 
the radically distinct nature of soul and spirit, or 
of mental and spiritual phenomena, it seems to me, 
cannot be over-estimated. It is generally consid- 
ered only negative evidence in favor of immor- 
tality, but to me it is quite positive : for, granting 
that consciousness, will, thought, the essential 
constituents of the spirit organism, are imma- 
terial entities, we may proceed at once to affirm 



280 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

that death cannot affect these, since it affects only 
material things. Of course it may be objected 
that the soul, the intellect especially, though 
it be but the organ or instrument of the spirit 
organism, is yet necessary to the spirit's activity, 
just as an instrument is necessary to the produc- 
tion of music by the musician. To which it may 
be replied: While this is true in this material 
world so long as the spirit organism is imprisoned 
within the body, we have no right to assume 
that it is true when the spirit organism is freed 
from the body or " lifted up " into the unseen uni- 
verse. On the contrary, the action of the spirit 
organism in that sphere would be impossible if 
it were united to a material form and brain. 
Could the spirit organism of Jesus " come unto 
us and make his abode with us " if it were joined 
with and dependent upon a human soul or in- 
tellect? 

On the other hand, it seems imperative that the 
spirit in us must come to birth before it can be 
conscious of being acted upon by spirit attraction. 
But however this may be, it is a grand triumph 
for Christology to have a scientific demonstration 
that man is something else than a bundle of mat- 
ter and material forces ; and as grand a triumph 
on the part of science, that the doctrine of evo- 
lution has at last reached the Christ plane, and 
that in the near future it will be able to place 
upon a scientific basis the fundamental truths of 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RESURRECTION. 281 

the Christ dispensation — that the Christ is a divine 
'principle or entity in nature innate or incarnate 
within every human being, and that Jesus was 
the first completed development of the Christ prin- 
ciple., the last and highest form of immaterial 
force. 

I may not be able to follow out all the details 
in the evolutionary movement of the develop- 
ment of the Christ principle and express it in 
the language of science. But I have that 
within me the same in a less degree that Jesus 
had at the close of his forty days in the wilder- 
ness, and Paul after his three years in Arabia, 
viz., a divine life^ a spirit organism, a Christ or 
Son of man. 

First, the idea that every human soul will attain 
immortality must be given up ; for it contradicts 
both the statements of Scripture and the facts of 
evolution, philosophy, and Christology. But that 
every spirit embryo or* Christ entity will ultimately 
come to spirit birth or resurrection and thus com- 
plete its evolution or destiny cannot be denied by 
evolutionists. 

In the unseen universe spirits are not numbered 
by human bodies ; material bodies are not taken 
into consideration, as we count animals, but rather 
the spirit entities of all grades of development from 
the embryo to the completed spirit organism. 

Hence the vast, almost inconceivable difference 
in numbers on the mortal roll and the spirit roll. 



282 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION. 

" Many are called, but few are chosen." Many are 
born into the world, but few come to spirit birth or 
resurrection and develop into spirit organisms. 

The rate of spirit birth or resurrection increases 
with the increase of mental development. Many 
have come to spirit birth or resurrection within the 
present century, and the next century will witness 
the spirit birth of a greater number. 



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